The Devil's Wings
by dmrahn
Summary: Do you believe in destiny? Or that someone can change the path they are on? Remnant's best assassin looked down on those that did, but a visit to his Alma Mater made him ask a question: "Can a killer change his ways?"
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note**

 **This is my first fan fic, but far from my first endeavor in writing. I've written quite a bit of poetry and descriptive writing. This being my first fan fic I would love feedback. I have plenty written for this story already, but I am more than willing to go through it and make any changes that would improve the story. Thanks, I hope you enjoy the story.**

Chapter 1

A Golden Halo

A ring of silver gold curls sprawled upon the chest of a man. Strong ropes of tendons and muscles cradled the slender frame of a woman. The sun began it's lazy assent into the sky, as if wishing that it didn't have to rise on this Sunday in spring. As the light gently peeked through fluttering gossamer curtains, it began to illuminate the face of one man's very own angel.

 _God she is the most beautiful woman I have ever met._ The man thought lazily. _I wish we could stay like this forever.  
_

A small yawn interrupted his revelry.

"You really should learn not to speak everything you think." The blonde woman murmured into his chest.

"Hmm? Did I say that aloud?"

"Yes, you did, just like every morning." She sighed.

"Well then, if you are so tired of hearing it, then maybe I should stop saying it." The man chided back, a smile lighting his face as she turned to look him in the eye.

"Yes, maybe you should, we wouldn't want me to develop an ego, now would we?"

"Oh no, that would be horrible." came his sarcastic reply. "You with an ego would be the worst thing on Remnant."

She craned her neck to place a gentle kiss upon the man's cheek. "Hush now. Let me sleep more. We have nothing to do today, and I intend to make up all the sleep I lost last night."

A proud smirk appeared on the man's face. "It was a well earned reward after such a challenging mission."

"That it was." The blonde purred as she curled back into her lover's arms.

"If you are so tired you should go back to sleep."

"I will, in a minute…" she whispered as she began to trail gentle bites up the supple flesh of her lover's chest.

"Hey now. Did I give you permission to mark up my skin like that?" He breathed, as his voice caught in his throat.

"No… but I did…" she responded playfully as she continued her way up to his collar bone, where she placed a gentle kiss on a small pale white scar that stood out against his sun kissed skin.

"Then I give myself permission to do this!" He exclaimed as he pulled her away from his chest and quickly got out of the nest of blankets that made their bed.

"Aw, I was just beginning to enjoy myself…" she sighed. "Now I'll never get back to sleep with my pillow gone."

"Well then, you'll just have to get up." he said. "We have plenty of cleaning to do around here." He gestured at the mess that had been made of their bedroom during the activities of the previous night.

"I guess."

The blonde rose from the bed, her slim figure being back-lit by the early morning light. She was a tall woman, barely into her twenties, with curls bearing a shade of gold that would make jewelers envious, her long legs toned and firm, leading into thin hips that swayed as she walked towards her lover, strong arms wrapping around her lover's neck, dragging the tall man to her chest.

"How could you ever want to leave the bed when all of this," she purred as she gestured to her very nude body, "is begging for you to stay?"

"That my dear Glynda, is an easy question to answer." he replied with a laugh. "My mistress is calling."

A shocked gaze met his eyes, "HOW DARE Y-" she began to scream back before she was cut off with a chaste kiss and the slamming of the bathroom door.

"Oh… I see…" she said, defeated, as the realization hit her. _He is always making such poorly timed jokes._ She mused as she went to gather a set of clothes from her wardrobe.

The sound of water spilling forth from a tap hit her ears from the direction of the bathroom as her lover entered the shower. A mischievous smile spreading across her lips as she conceived of an idea to get her way.

Quietly placing her bundle of clothing on the bed, she stalked over to the bathroom door and slipped in. She walked over to the shower, hips swaying, and she opened the frosted glass door to find it empty. She began to look around when two familiar arms wrapped around her waist and guided her into the shower.

"Lucien, one day I am going to smack you for your antics." She threatened.

"Sure you will Glynda, my little angel." He chuckled at her hollow threat.

A swift elbow to the ribs quickly stifled his laughter. "I told you not to call me that."

"What, an angel?"

"No, little."

"Oh, but to me you are." He said, resting his chin upon her head to illustrate his point.

"So you keep saying, but some would see it the other way around, that you are a giant." She said while turning around to look up into the eyes of her extremely tall partner. Lucien was nearly six feet ten inches tall, his body long and lithe, his young body all ropey muscle and tendon, with a sharp jaw line, high cheekbones, and dark steely blue eyes that melted her cold exterior, and a mess of dark hair that never seemed to stay in one place.

"Oh-ho, really now?"

"Yes, we had to rent an apartment with extra tall ceilings to accommodate your freakish height." She quipped as she began to lather her golden curls, turning away from her lover.

A small chuckle was the only response she received as her lover began to wash himself of the night's events. The patter of water on skin was the only noise for the rest of the endeavor. As they toweled themselves off, the birds nesting in the trees outside the window began to chirp, giving the sterile white and grey tiled room a lively air.

"You know this is fruitless?" Glynda murmured as she watch her partner towel off his head of unruly dark hair. Her eyes roamed to more entertaining parts of his anatomy.

"Oh really now? I thought you were the queen of showing restraint?" Lucien quipped back, a sly sparkle appearing in his eyes.

"Only when restraint is called for, and I think restraint went out the window when we signed the lease…" she replied as she lead the way into the bedroom. "Look at this. Does it look like we've been practicing restraint?" She gestured at the mess of blankets and pillows that made up their bedroom, in the small loft apartment they rented in downtown Vale.

"No, it does not. But today, we are going to clean this mess of an apartment."

As he walked away from Glynda towards the wardrobe that belonged to him, her eyes caught on two long slender gaps between his shoulder blades where she new something was missing. They appeared as two slender patches of flesh where her eyes simply couldn't make anything out. Obscured as if her mind couldn't figure what to make of them. She of course knew what went there, but not for the first time she wondered why he hid such beauty with such ugly gaps upon his skin.

"Tell me again why you hide them." She demanded in a hushed tone.

"It would be hard to share a bed with me if I didn't." He joked, avoiding the answer he knew she wanted.

"True, but you know that's not what I want to hear."

"Doors get complicated too."

She was beginning to grow tired of this back and forth much quicker than usual, after being turned down not once but twice already that morning.

"Just tell me again." She snapped, growing impatient.

"Because people aren't ready to see someone who is acclaimed as a huntsman and gentleman and thought to be a human walking around with these." He snapped back letting go of his semblance and revealing a pair of massive wings, snow white with the speckling of a snowy owl.

The pair of wings taking on an iridescent glow in the early morning light. He let them spread out, spanning almost twice the length of his arms, only making the ethereal glow shine even brighter. A glance over his shoulder confirmed his suspicion, Glynda was speechless, with an awed look upon her face. She began to approach him from behind, outstretching a hand. As she came within reach she pulled her hand back and gathered her resolution. She slowly, almost tentatively reached out and placed her hand between the snowy wings and gently brushed down the feathers at their bases. Lucien let this go on for quite some time, enjoying the feeling.

She became more confident in her actions, slowly stroking the over-sized feathers that made up his wings, gently scratching at the bare skin between them. Gradually getting closer to him as the moments of silence passed. Eventually her body was pressed into the gap in the powerful muscles of his back, curling her arms around his chest and feeling the soft feathers brushing the bare skin of her chest, as he began to relax his wings into a more comfortable position.

"I'm sorry I got mad at you." Glynda finally spoke in a soft whisper, knowing that no matter how quiet she may speak he would be able to hear her, his wings not being the only thing in common with owls.

"It's ok my dear. I understand why some people could become so enamored with these ugly things."

"They are not ugly! They are one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!"

"My dearest Glynda…" he sighed "You are not the one who must hide them lest he been struck down with stones by walking into the wrong neighborhood."

"One day the faunus will be able to walk proudly as equals with man." She replied hopefully "And when that day comes, I hope I will be there to see it."

"So do I my dear" he said, a wistful look upon his face "but until then these shall stay hidden. Oh, and I wasn't joking, doorways are quite tricky with these things hanging off my back."

"Oh I am sure they are." She snickered, their moods greatly improving with the mild humor.

"My dear, I believe it is time we decide once and for all what we are going to do with this day." Lucien said cheerfully

"Well… I know what I want to do with it, but I have a feeling you will disagree…" Glynda let her sentence trail off as her hands began wandering to places she knew she wouldn't have gone with any other man.

A hushed moan escaped his mouth as Glynda dragged her nails down his chest leaving bright red trails, she began nipping at his collar and placing kisses on his neck, slowly making him lose his resolve.

"Stop, just for a moment." He requested.

"What do you need?" She asked, her voice rough with lust.

He stepped away for a moment and activated his semblance, his wings quickly fading into nothing, leaving the all too familiar gaps on his back where something should be. He caught the sound of a quiet sigh and didn't look behind him for a moment, letting Glynda have her bitter moment. Slowly he turned around to face he and he drew her into his arms and kissed her with a gentle passion. Slowly leading her back to the bed falling into the mess of sheets, letting her land on his chest with a sharp slap of skin on skin.

"So tell me," he whispered to her, "is this how you wanted to spend the morning?"

"I think we are getting there." She whispered back hungrily.

"I'm glad I can accommodate you, Miss."

"Haha, oh when we're done here you will have done much more than accommodate me…" she purred letting her words trail off into a searing kiss as Lucien pulled her up to be level with him. They stayed like that until their lungs demanded air, gasping for breath as their hands began to wander.

Soon much more than kisses were being exchanged.

Late in the afternoon the couple finally disentangled themselves and showered once again. Barely escaping another round of lovemaking and revelry. Steadily the pair worked together on the cleaning that needed to be done in their small apartment.

Soon enough all was in order, ending once again in the bedroom they had spent their morning in, but now it was immaculate, bed neatly made, the desks in the corner organized, the clothes in the wardrobes folded neatly and stowed in their proper homes, all was in order.

 _I wish every day could be spent like this_ Lucien thought to himself, silently this time. _It gets so exhausting hunting grimm all the time. It's nice to just work around our home. Our Home… things moved so fast… it feels like yesterday when we met on that mission… fucking boarbatusks…_

His thoughts interrupted by the buzzing of his scroll, looking down he saw that the number belonged to a representative of one of the Huntsman organizations he had worked with.

"I've got to take this. Work." He said to his partner before leaving the room.

"Lucien speaking." He replied into the scroll.

"Lucien, this is Alistair, from the Vale Huntsmen, we have a job. There have been increasing reports of criminal activity in the warehouse district of Vale, it seems that a small crime lord has setup shop there. The Vale Police are asking for our help in apprehending or eliminating him."

"Ok, how much does it pay and how large of a team?"

"One man team, 2500 lien alive, half that dead."

"This sounds like work for a bounty hunter, why are the Huntsmen getting involved?"

"I don't know, I am just in charge of finding someone to do the job."

 _I don't like this kind of work, but a small time crime boss couldn't be too hard to apprehend._

"Ok, I'll take the job."

"Good, I'll forward the details to your scroll. Happy hunting."

"Thank you. Happy Hunting."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note**

 **Two days and I've already got 6 followers on my first story... Wow... I actually have people interested in my story... Okay. Here's chapter two, I hope you all enjoy it.**

Chapter 2

A Fleeting Memory

The massive gates to Beacon Academy for Huntsman stood towering in front of a dark individual, illuminated by the glow of artificial lights. He stood tall, dressed in blacks and greys standing out amongst the blue backdrop of the night, his hands bearing the only hint of colour, blued steel encompassed his hands and forearms. His eyes came to rest upon the towering spires of the academy itself. Glaring at the tallest one, the clock tower, knowing his quarry was waiting for him there. The figure began striding towards the gate, a focused expression plastered on his face.

" _It's been a long time."_ The figure thought. " _Twenty years since I lived in Vale."_

As the figure approached the large double doors that lead into the academy's entrance hall a tall man stepped out of them, his cane clicking as he walked towards the figure.

"I don't know why you are here." The man said. "But I know who you are and I know what you do. If you don't want every faculty member to reign fire down upon you, you will tell me why you are here."

"And if you don't like my answer?" The figure asked, his face a mask of serenity.

"Then we revisit the fire scenario."

"Well then, I better tell you why I am here."

"Yes, promptly please."

"I would like to enroll as a student here, starting this semester preferably." The figure responded cooly.

The man maintained a straight face that betrayed his immense surprise.

"Why would _you_ want to do that?"

"I wish to be a huntsman. Isn't that what you do here, train huntsmen?" The figure inquired.

"Yes, but I doubt one such as yourself needs training to be a huntsman. What is it you really want?" The man demanded.

 _Oh Oz, you always were the smartest one in the room._

"To learn to be a huntsman. I have no reason to lie to you. I have never sinned against the academies, and they have never sinned against me." The figure stated, as though it were the truest fact ever said.

"While that may be true at face value, we both know that an assassin rarely does something without ulterior motives. And this _request_ of yours reeks of ulterior motives." Ozpin said, his mask of calm concealing a racing mind.

 _Oh Oz, what are you thinking about? Trying to figure out why I would even bother contemplating going back to school? Good luck figuring that one out, if the guy doing it can't figure out why, how could you?_

"Are you armed?" Ozpin asked, a flicker of worry crossing his brow.

"Oz… You know I am armed. When did you start asking such idiotic questions?" The figure taunted.

"Then disarm yourself and come inside." Ozpin demanded. "We'll talk in my office."

"Ok Oz… Tell me… Is she here? Now, watching, waiting to strike?" The man inquired, his mask cracking for the briefest of moments.

"Oh she was the first to take arms." Ozpin related with a chuckle, a slight smirk raising his brow.

"Well, that's to be expected." The stranger said, exasperated. "I'll give you my arms then. Just make sure she doesn't end my life before we can talk."

The stranger raised his arms above his head and started to walk forward. When he was five paces from Ozpin he slowly and deliberately reached above his head and began to unbuckle the clasps that held his gauntlets in place. One after the other he gently tossed them at the feet of the headmaster. Ozpin slowly bent down to pick them up, inspecting them quickly before tucking them under his arms and turning around to lead the intruder into the school.

"Come along now." Ozpin called back. "And for dust's sake put your arms down."

A chuckle escaped the stranger. _Well this is going better than I thought. Let's just hope she doesn't show up to ruin it all. I am sure that I could keep my cool so long a she kept her's, but knowing her she wouldn't and then I'd probably kill someone._ The stranger contemplated grimly.

As they made their way through the school in silence the stranger inspected his surroundings. The bright white stone walls, the dark carpeting, the old oak wood trim, every bit of it bringing back memories of his days walking these halls as a student. Days he had told himself to forget, days he almost did forget, but now they were coming back to him clear as day.

 _When did I become sentimental? That's all this entire thing must be, one big sentimental phase. Who am I trying to fool with this? There is no way I could be a student again. I could pass any test they gave me in seconds. Not to mention the whole 40 year old man thing..._

"Here we are." Ozpin said stopping in front of an elevator. "Come along then."

"Right behind you"

The ride in the elevator was a quiet one. Both parties thinking about the possible conversations they could have when they reached the top. Neither of them liking the prospects.

 _Well, now I just have to be… Honest… This is going to be pleasant._

The elevator dinged, telling it's occupants that they had reached the desired floor. Ozpin stepped out into the antechamber before his office, waiting there was Ozpin's right hand, Glynda Goodwitch. She was standing there in her usual dress of white blouse and black skirt, however on this night she had forgone the high heels and the purple and black cape.

 _Well here is where things could get tricky. Well she looks good. I guess twenty years treated her very well. I wish I could say the same. Fuck, this is going to be harder with her here._

"Headmaster, Intruder." Glynda greeted them with equal parts respect and disdain.

"Hello Glynda." Ozpin greeted. "I think it best you leave us to talk."

"Hello Glynda." The intruder replied. "It's been quite some time."

"Go die." She spat as she walked out of the antechamber and into the elevator.

"Well then. She was pleasant." The dark figure quipped, barely containing his anger.

"If my understanding is correct she has reason to be so… aggressive…" Ozpin reasoned as he led them into his office taking his seat behind his desk.

"You could say that." The stranger agreed, his anger subsiding.

"My apologies. I don't think I actually introduced myself." Ozpin suggested. "Though that hasn't hindered you in calling me by name."

"No we haven't, and no it hasn't." The stranger replied with a hint of sarcasm to his tone.

"Well then. I am Ozpin, Headmaster of this school."

"Morningstar. That's what you can call me for now."

"Oh really, Morningstar, that's all?" Ozpin inquired. "Not Lucien?"

"No that name isn't one I've gone by in a very long time." _Hell, when did I become so cliche?_

"Well as cliche as that is, I think I'll be calling you Lucien." Ozpin replied, nearly reading Lucien's thoughts.

*sigh* "Fine. But down to business. I want to attend your school. I may be too old, and too skilled, but I'm not looking to grow into a huntsman here, I want to remember what it was like to be a huntsman." Lucien explained.

"Ah… You wish to give up the life you've been leading for the last twenty years? Is that what brings you to my doorstep in the middle of the night?"

"Yeah, I guess it's something like that." Lucien answered calmly. "Though don't think it's as simple as you make it sound."

"Oh I'm sure it's not." Ozpin said, glaring into the eyes of the man standing before him. "One last question though."

"It better be a good one cause after this you had better give me an answer."

"Why would a killer of men suddenly want to be a protector from grimm?"

"I have my own reasons. Not too many make sense even to a killer." Lucien answered, a slight glaze coming over his eyes as he thought back on his life. Years of killing and lien. That's all he saw in his past. Some good had come of it, taking down a corrupt government one assassination at a time, eliminating an entire crime ring, and many other atrocious acts that he'd been hired to do "for the greater good". What he also remembered were the many lives he had ended for money for no other reason than someone wanted them dead. In the last few years he had caught himself doing more and more of that kind of work. It didn't bother him. That's what he told himself, that's what kept him going, telling himself that he was just the weapon, other's money pulled the trigger. A clearing throat brought him out of his revelry, Ozpin staring into his eyes as if trying to read his thoughts.

"Is there something else you want to ask?" Lucien growled.

"No need for hostility. I understand the maze one's thought can become. What I said was that I will allow you to become a student here, with a few strict rules, rules that if broken could mean more than expulsion."

"Understood. Now what are these rules?"

"One, No More Killing."

"Already done. I put down those blades. The ones you are holding right now haven't and will never touch the blood of man." _I hope._

"Good. Two, you must not let another student learn of who you were."

"Didn't intend to."

"Excellent. Three, no contracting outside of the school. If you are going to be a student here you are going to do it properly, and we both know you don't need anymore lien."

"Fine." Lucien replied grudgingly. _I was hoping I could keep amassing wealth, I didn't have to take jobs that involved killing... *sigh*_

"Also, don't talk to any of your old contacts. We don't need the world finding out that a deadly assassin is attending Beacon."

"Cut most of those ties already."

"Four, respect all of the faculty, they are no longer your peers. You lost the right to call them that long ago, and here they will be your teachers."

"Fine." Lucien choked out. _These rules are starting to piss me off._

"Five, keep your anger in check. It was legendary once upon a time and I'm sure that it hasn't gotten any tamer."

" **Fine.** " Barely restraining his anger, determined not to after Ozpin's previous statement.

"Six, and this one is quite important, remember your place here is as a student, but you are also quite a bit older than the average student here. Try to keep a low profile and don't get involved with the student's problems too much."

*sigh* "Easily done, I doubt any of their petty squabbles would interest me."

"Last one, don't upset Glynda. Or don't upset her anymore than your presence already does."

"I get why you are worried. But you don't need to be. I fully intend to keep our interactions to a strictly professional basis."

"Good. I'm glad we have that out of the way. We have no teams that aren't full, so you will be a one man team. You will also be staying in one of the dorms that is less populated. I'll have Oobleck show you to your dorm and fill you in on everything. I'll have your schedule delivered to you in the morning."

"Thank you Ozpin. I'll see myself out."

"Good night Lucien. I'm sure we will be speaking more soon." Ozpin said, a hint of a smile appearing as he waved Lucien off.

 _Damn he hasn't lightened up one bit. Well it's not like I am one to talk. Damn it, fuck!… Why do you have to be here?_

"Come along." Glynda Goodwitch commanded.

"I thought Oobleck was going to show me to my room?" Lucien asked, a hint of venom in his tone.

"No." She snapped back.

" **Fine.** "

They walked in silence through the halls of the school. When they finally entered into the cool night air Glynda finally found the breath to speak again.

"You don't deserve to be here." She started, her full of ire. "You deserve to be in the ground."

"I tend to agree with you there." The usually sarcastic assassin replied, a healthy dose of sorrow and guilt weighing down his voice. Bracing himself for the tongue lashing that he knew would be coming. _What I did was unforgivable, who I've become is unforgivable. I don't blame anyone for hating me. But I won't lose any sleep because of it._ They kept walking in silence for sometime, finally arriving at the doors to the dormitory where he would be staying. She stopped ahead of him and turned around. Her expression fierce, but her eyes betrayed her body. They looked as though she was about to start crying.

"Do you have any idea what happened?" She whispered to him, her tone full of ire. "When you left."

"I don't think you want the answer to that question." He said, his voice nearly catching in his throat as he spoke.

"No, I know I want answers. I just don't think you have any." She accused, raising her finger to point at his chest.

"No I suppose I don't have any answers for you." _None that would make up for what I did._

"Well then, come along." She commanded, returning to her professional demeanor with the flick of a switch.

"Lead the way." He said bitterly.

As she lead them into the building his extreme hearing picked up the sounds of snoring coming from above, as well as what sounded suspiciously like a couple enjoying each others' company a bit too much for a high school dorm room. _Disgusting, in my day we never would have thought to do that in the dorms. We at least waited till break to have our fun._ They continued on through the common room until they reached the flight of steps that took them to the upper floors, stopping on the second floor landing. _Oh for the love of... I was right! These kids are just pitiful._

"Damn it. Hold here for a moment, I need to go be a teacher." The blonde said as she began to storm off in the direction of the offending dorm.

 _I almost feel sorry for the poor guy who is about to lose his little head. But if he didn't have the decency to keep it stowed than I can't feel to bad for him._

"Miss Belladonna! Miss Xiao Long! You know that this kind of behavior is strictly forbidden!" Shouted the blonde woman into a the now open door of the offending dorm room.

 _Wow, girls? Hmm, I guess I'm old fashioned, never would have thought girls would be that stupid._

"Professor Goodwitch! We weren't doing anything! We swear!" Cried out a dark haired girl as she came stumbling out into the hall, fully clothed, dragging her blonde partner in crime with her, also fully clothed.

"Then Please explain the quite elicit noises coming from your dorm! As well as the lack of your team mates!" The frightening woman demanded.

"Well we were sore after sparring today and..." The dark haired girl began before being cut off by her partner.

"Professor we were just helping each other relax our sore muscles. Just some massaging of non-erogenous zones. You know what I mean." The blonde teen replied, her tone dismissive, as though she felt it proper to talk to a professor that way.

"Miss Xiao Long, do NOT speak to me that way. Now both of you to bed, and find your team mates and have them go there as well."

"Yes ma'am" The dark haired one replied dragging her partner back into their dorm before her mouth could get them into real trouble.

 _Damn she is just as scary when she's angry as I remembered._

"My apologies for the interruption." Glynda said as she turned back to Lucien.

"Not a problem"

"Well come along then, you room is at the end of the hall."

"Lead the way, Ma'am" Lucien prodded with a hint of sarcasm.

She lead him to the last door on the hall and opened it with a key she pulled from a hidden pocket on her person. Unlocking the door she stepped back and motioned for Lucien to take the first step into the room. Obliging he entered to see a musty room, clearly having been left to sit for quite some time, book shelves placed against the northern wall covered in a thick layer of dust, bedding made neatly on four twin mattresses positioned in the corners of the small room.

"Thank you for showing me to my room, but it has gotten late and I would hate to keep you up any longer." Lucien said cordially as he inspected the room.

"Good night. Remember you have class in the morning, you'll schedule will be sent to this scroll." Glynda informed as she handed him a scroll that she had somehow concealed. As she began to leave she stopped, turning to face Lucien.

"You should know that whatever you told Ozpin about why you wanted to come here, I don't believe a word of it." She stated threateningly.

"How could you not believe it, when you don't even know what I said?"

"You aren't the honest man I once knew. You do work that always involves ulterior motives." She reasoned.

"Did work, **did** , work that involved ulterior motives."

"I will wait to see how true that statement is." She replied curtly. "Good night."

"Good night Glynda, I'm glad to see you are doing well."

A scoff and closing door was the only reply he got. _Well that went horribly. I guess she was right all those years ago. I still need to work on not saying everything I think._ He walked over to the bed closest to the window overlooking the courtyard, standing in front of it as he pulled off his shirt and pulled back the covers on his new bed. Laying down his mind was a swirling pool of memories he had spent so long burying.

 _Damn it all. Why am I here? What has possessed me to come back to this place? This whole idea reeks of insanity. Maybe that's it, I've finally gone crazy like everyone said I would. Well at least I'll be doing it in comfort, surrounded by people who are just waiting for a chance to end my life. Could be worse._

His last thoughts were of the past, of his days spent in the halls of Beacon, of the days after beacon, before he fell prey to the life he had lead for the last twenty years. Soon enough oblivion took him, a restless sleep that had him waking every few hours. In time he awoke to find the sun just beginning its slow climb across the morning sky.

 _Well I guess it's time for a new start. If those exist._


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note**

 **Hey guys I wanted to say thanks for all the follows. I never really thought my first story would get any. I would love to know what you guys think about the story so far and if there is anything I need to improve upon, so reviews would be appreciated. Thanks, hope you enjoy the chapter.**

Chapter 3

A Shadowed Ghost

That morning Lucien was the first person awake in the dorm building, he took advantage of this and readied himself for his first day as a returning student. Showering and dressing into his clothes from the day before, looking in the mirror he could see the stains on his clothes properly, hidden by the dim light the previous night. _These need to be burned._ He thought, contemplating how the students would react to seeing a man dressed in blood stained clothes walking through the halls of the school. _That won't go over well, and would probably break one of Ozpin's rules._ Glancing around the room he spotted a set of fresh clothes sitting on the bed opposite the one he spent the night on. Picking them up he inspected them, finding that these new clothes were the official uniform of Beacon Academy.

"Ugh… Uniforms." Lucien groaned. "How the hell did these even get in here?"

Putting them on he studied himself in the mirror again. _I look like the most out of place idiot ever seen, greying hair does not do this uniform justice._ Turning away from the mirror he picked up the scroll Glynda left for him the previous night. Inspecting it he found his class schedule already on it. _How mundane. Starting the day off with history, then combat training. Well at least I'll get to see how the current generation of huntsman in training perform._ Walking down the empty halls of the dorm he heard the other students still slumbering, not yet ready to greet the day. As he neared the dorm that was the site of the previous night's commotion, the door across the hall opened up to let a tall red haired girl exit.

"Oh excuse me." The girl began, noticing him immediately. "Um, I don't believe we've met. Are you a professor here?"

"Uh… No, I guess you could say I am a new non-traditional student." Lucien explained, taken aback by her assumption. "I am Lucien La Fiere."

"Nice to meet you, I am Pyrrha Nikos. First year." The redhead replied, extending her hand.

"Nice to meet you to, Pyrrha." Lucien said, taking the extended hand.

"Well I am off to breakfast. Would you like to join me?" Pyrrha offered.

Slightly taken aback by her friendliness. "Uh… Sure, I was heading that way myself." Lucien agreed.

"So if you don't mind me asking, why did you decide to become a student here?" The girl inquired.

"Well you could say I became… unsatisfied with my previous line of work." Lucien replied, avoiding any real mention of his past.

"Oh well that is understandable. What did you do before?"

"I worked in politics." _Not entirely untrue._

"Oh I bet that was… Interesting." Pyrrha said unsurely.

"At times." Lucien said curtly.

An unsettling silence fell upon the conversation as the two walked through the courtyard towards the dinner hall. Taking in the campus in the light of day Lucien realized that the school had changed a bit more than he realized since his days there. The gardens were much better taken care of, the whitewashed walls of the stone buildings had been repainted, and many of the roofs on the old buildings had been redone. _They really fixed this place up, not that it actually needed it, but it is good for appearances._

"So… Mr La Fiere. If I may, how did you get into beacon? Seeing as how you are on my floor and we haven't met till now, I am assuming that this is your first day." Pyrrha inquired.

"You can simply call me Lucien, Pyrrha. As for how I got into Beacon on such short notice, I simply called in small favor with an old friend." Lucien explained. _Very perceptive girl.I should watch out for her, I bet she is deadly in a fight._

A nod of acknowledgement was all he got, as the girl lead the way into the dining hall. The hall was almost barren. Only a few small gatherings of students were seated around the long tables that filled the room. The usual dull roar that filled the hall was replaced by a collection of hushed conversations. The smell of fresh eggs and sausage filled the room with an intoxicating aroma.

"Well this is surprisingly pleasant. I expected it to be much more lively, even at this hour." Lucien commented.

"Well most of the other students aren't even awake yet, let alone ready for breakfast." Pyrrha said, motioning to the clock on the wall above the line for food, showing that it was only half past six.

"I guess I hadn't realized how early it actually was." Lucien explained, his mood improved by the sight of a quiet place to eat his morning meal.

Pyrrha lead the way again, taking a place in the very short line for food. As they approached the trays of hot food they each grabbed a plate and began loading them with food. Taking the lead now Lucien strode over to a more secluded table along the southern wall of the hall, taking a seat, the two began eating, a silence falling upon them again. Pyrrha was the first to speak again.

"So If you don't mind me asking...again, what class do you have first?"

"Even if I did mind, I don't think that would stop you from asking." Lucien replied cooly. "But as for my first class. History of Remnant. I'm assuming most first years have it as well?"

"Yes, the first year class is divided in half, one half has history first, the other has Grimm studies." Pyrrha explained.

"Ah, thank you."

"No problem. I'm always happy to he-"

"HEY PYRRHA!" A blonde boy called out as he entered the dining hall, waving in their direction.

"Oh hey Jaune! Over here!" Pyrrha called out.

Jaune rushed over taking a seat next to her and relaxed back into his chair. His gaze locked onto her for a moment before he finally noticed Lucien sitting across from them.

"Oh hello there Professor… I hope I'm not interrupting something important." The boy stammered out.

"He's not a professor Jaune." Pyrrha explained. "He's a student."

"Oh… um… ok then." Jaune replied, somewhat confused. "Well then it's nice to meet you, I'm Jaune Arc."

"Nice to meet you as well, Lucien La Fiere." The older man replied, extending his hand across the table.

"So… You're a student here?" Jaune asked tentatively, taking the extended hand.

"Yes… Tell you what. I have already answered these questions once for Miss Nikos. So why don't you let her explain, and I'll eat my breakfast in peace?" Lucien offered, a slight edge to his voice.

"Okay… So then, Pyrrha, would you fill me in?" Jaune asked turning to the redhead.

As Pyrrha explained the situation to Jaune, Lucien ate his meal in relative peace. By the time Pyrrha had finished explaining who he was to Jaune, six others had joined them at the table, each making their own introductions. He found out that the two girls from last night were infact friends of Pyrrha's, Blake and Yang, with their teammates Ruby and Weiss. As well as the rest of Pyrrha's team, Ren and Nora. He was mildly annoyed by the ruckus the recent additions to their table were causing, choosing to finish his meal quickly and excuse himself.

"See you in class! It was nice to meet you!" The perky brunette, Ruby, exclaimed as he got up to leave.

"Yes, nice to meet you too Ruby." He said in passing as he walked off.

Walking out of the dining hall and into the morning air he found himself calling. Taking a look around the school he marveled again at the feeling of being in someplace familiar, yet different, updated. _Well let's see who is teaching History. I bet it's that hyperactive geek Oobleck._ Soon enough he was in front of the main building, where the daily lectures were given. Entering the building he made his way to the lecture hall for his first class. Entering and taking a seat near the back he began inspecting his surroundings. The hall itself was fairly plain, rows of staggered seating with a small stage at the front of the room. Behind a large oak desk rows of blackboards with notes on history and hunting scrawled over their surfaces. As he sat looking around the professor entered the room. _Well it looks like I was right, Oobleck hasn't changed much either._

"Hello there." The tall man greeted. "Lucien. Ozpin told us that you'd be joining us."

"Hello Oobleck." Lucien replied. "How has life been?"

"It's Dr. Oobleck. And very busy." The hyperactive man replied, speaking in double time.

"Well busy is good."

"Yes, it can be, I've heard that you've been... _Busy_ … as well." Oobleck replied, uncharacteristically slow.

"Yes you could say that. I hope that my time here won't be so busy." Lucien replied coldly.

"Let's hope so."

"Yes let's. So teaching now?"

"I find it quite rewarding." Oobleck answered, returning to his usual double time pace.

"Good to know that you found your calling."

"Yes, quite." Oobleck replied while sifting through his lecture notes at lightning speed. "I'm sure you've been asked this a number of times already. But why?"

"There are a lot of answers to that question. Which one are you looking for?"

"Why return to Beacon, as a student?"

"Because I wanted to. If I am being honest that's the best answer there is." Lucien said, an edge to his tone. "Why would I ever do anything if I didn't want too?"

"Hmm. True."

"Now you tell me something, Oobleck. Where are the other students at in the history of Remnant?"

"We are currently covering the last great Fanus War." Oobleck answered, his fervor for the subject obvious.

"Ah… Interesting time in history."

"Quite so."

"Well I hate to be disrespectful, but I think I am going to rest before class starts. It looks as though we still have an hour or so." Lucien said, somewhat disinterested.

"Hmmm? Oh yes, whatever you say." Oobleck replied, already distracted by something in his notes.

Letting himself relax into his seat, his mind began to wander. Thinking of all of times he had sat in a similar position, in the back of a classroom, waiting for the day to really begin. _Damn those days were horrible, all the waiting and the boredom. Why am I subjecting myself to it all over again? What the hell am I doing?_ Soon enough an hour had passed and students began filing into the room, taking seats with their friends and teammates. A dull hum of conversation accompanied their entrance, but was soon silenced by the ringing of a bell, signaling Oobleck to take his place at the front of the room.

As Oobleck began his lecture, Lucien shook himself out of his thoughts long enough to listen to the lecture and find it unworthy of his attention. Letting his attention wander to more interesting things, he began to examine the students sitting in the room, many of them were just as he expected, fit, steady, and uninterested in the class they were being forced to sit through. _Well I hope next hour will actually tell me something about these kids._ _Well, a nap is better than listening to something I already know._ Closing his eyes, Lucien listened to the class for barely a minute before he fell into a light slumber. Awaking to the rustle of students leaving he began to pick himself up and leave when he was stopped by his name being called from the front of the room.

"Mr La Fiere, I don't know about you but I consider it very rude when someone decides to take a nap when I'm talking." Oobleck chastised.

"Oobleck, could you tell me why _I_ should be in a class about the last Great Fanus War, when you and I lived through it?" Lucien countered.

"We were children at the time. We weren't told why it was happening, or what was actually going on. While I'm sure we all have learned plenty about it by now, you are a student here and I expect you to pay attention in class." Oobleck stated. "Now go, your next professor won't tolerate tardiness."

"Good day then." Lucien said, nodding his farewell as he exited the class.

Making his way to the most central lecture hall he entered to find a state of the art arena. _Well this is Combat Training. I guess we'll probably see some interesting fights in here._ Standing at a podium on the area stage was the one teacher he was least enthusiastic about studying under, Glynda Goodwitch. _Well I guess this is where rule number seven comes into play._ Taking his seat near the back of the already full classroom, he watched her. He hadn't really _looked_ at her the previous night, she hadn't gotten any taller, not that she needed to. She was dressed in a white blouse, black skirt, black heeled boots, and a cape of purple and black that was tattered at the ends. _Well that's new, she never wore heels back in the day._

As the bell rang to signal that class had begun Lucien noticed a pattern that would occur in every class he had that day, the students hushed almost immediately and Professor Goodwitch took her place in front of the class.

"Good morning class" She began. "Today we will be studying the uses of Semblances in combat."

The class sat in eager silence, waiting to see who would be sparring today. A few small groans escaped those students who had yet to find their own Semblances. _Well this will definitely be interesting. Let's see what these kids really have to offer._

"Since we are going to be using Semblances today, any student who has not discovered their Semblance yet will be excused from any challenges. Instead I will expect a one page paper on any one fight that we observe today." Glynda explained.

Even more groans rose up from the students amassed in the class room. _Well that's not reassuring, that many people who haven't found their Semblance yet. I counted at least a dozen, these guys better be working their asses off if they want to survive here for four years._

"We'll let the randomizer pick the first match." Glynda continued. The randomizer began flicking through the students, eventually slowing down and stopping. "The first student selected is, Pyrrha Nikos."

Hitting the randomizer again Glynda turned to Pyrrha. "Miss Nikos, you may go collect your equipment from your locker."

"Thank you Professor." Pyrrha replied, rising from her seat and walking off to the locker room.

The randomizer having stopped now, Glynda looked at her scroll. "The second student is, Lucien La Fiere."

 _How did I see this match coming? I wasn't expecting it so soon, but it could be worse. I take that back. This isn't going to help with keeping a low profile. Shit._

Whispers suddenly rose up from the students. _Who's that? I've never heard of him before. Is he new?_

"You may go and retrieve your equipment from your locker. The info was sent to your scroll at the same time at your course schedule." Glynda announced loud enough for the entire class to hear, verifying their assumptions that he was new.

"Thank you ma'am." Was all Lucien said as he walked out of the room through the same door Pyrrha exited. The students' eyes following his every step, taking in his aged appearance, wondering who this strange man was.

Entering the locker room he checked his scroll and found that the information for his locker had indeed been sent along with his courses. Finding his locker and opening it he found his gauntlets as well as a set of dark clothes waiting for him. Changing into the clothes he found them to be a good fit and let him move very easily. Strapping on his gauntlets he felt a sense of security fall over him that he hadn't realised he'd been missing since taking them off the previous night.

"Feast and Famine… I've missed you." Lucien spoke almost endearingly to his weaponry. Flexing his wrists, he let two broad and wickedly pointed blades shoot forward from the backs of the gauntlets. A small smile spread across his face, one of excitement and cruelty.

"You have never tasted battle. Have you?" He said, continuing to address his weapons. "Well let's not keep her waiting."

 _Remember you psycho, no bloodshed. This is merely a training exercise. Besides, she was so nice to you, hurting her would be so disrespectful._

Striding out of the locker rooms and onto the arena floor he saw that the arena was now enclosed in a force field that blocked his view of the outside world. The only thing he could see was Pyrrha and Glynda waiting for him near the center of the arena. Striding forth he nodded to Glynda and turned to address Pyrrha. Before he could speak Glynda brought his attention back to her with a short cough.

"This is merely a training exercise. No bloodshed and excessive violence." She stated coldly.

"Thank you professor, but I am well aware of the rules, that was only one time and I gave you my word that it wouldn't happen again." Pyrrha said, she added in a whisper to herself that only Lucien heard. "Cordin, you fucking ass."

"I wasn't saying that for your benefit Miss Nikos." Glynda replied curtly, glaring at Lucien.

"I will follow the rules, Professor." Lucien replied, using his most civil tone. "All of them."

"Good. Now you may begin when you are ready." Glynda said, addressing both combatants.

A quick nod was all she got from both of them as the backed away from the center, each readying their weapons. Lucien appraised Pyrrha's choice in weapons. A xyphos and shield, her stance mimicking that of a spartan warrior, low to the ground and light on her feet. His stance was an oddity to Pyrrha, almost a cross between a fencer and a boxer, like he has recently changed how he fought. _He looks competent, but almost as though he's never used those weapons._ She thought as she began side stepping, watching him side step as well to keep her in front of him at all times. _Well she has the amazonian vibe down to a T._ Lucien thought, as he began planning his method of attack.

He took the first steps forward, aiming a quick jab at her sword arm. She easily deflected it upward with her shield, aiming her own counter-strike at his now exposed side. In tempo with his first strike he raised his other blade to deflect her strike, using the flat of his broad blade like a shield. Each stepping back, examining the exchange of blows that had just occurred. Circling again they met eyes, each waiting to see the other's Semblance in action. Pyrrha decided that she would be the first to show her abilities, waiting for her opportunity to expose her trump card.

Lucien observed her as she formulated her plan, seeing the gears turning behind her eyes. _She's going to use her Semblance. Well let's see what it is._ Taking the initiative again he stepped into range and aimed a thrust at her head, waiting for the shield to deflect the blow, ready when it happened to bring his second blade in to defend the counter-attack. Then he felt it, a strong tugging on his off arm, as if it was being pulled out of the way by a Beowulf. _So that's what it is, polarity._ He let the attack slide though, taking the jab to the side without even a grunt. On the monitors outside of the arena the other students watched his aura drop by the slightest fraction. Astounded by the miniscule amount of damage that powerful jab had done.

"Nice hit. I guess I was too slow." Lucien complimented, his politeness thinly veiling his understanding.

"I guess so." Pyrrha said, shooken slightly by his words.

Circling again the combatants prepared mentally for the next exchange of blows. This time Pyrrha took the chance and stepped into range and attempted to slash at Lucien's left flank, only to meet a blade. _I thought I had slowed him down enough to not deflect that?_ She questioned herself as Lucien pushed her away and took up an offensive stance. Charging her he began striking in rapid succession, most of his blows being deflected by her shield, and those that her shield missed were deflected by her blade. _She's quick. Let's see how quick._ Lucien thought, picking up the pace of his hits, only landing one strike on her shoulder. Backing off, he let her catch her breath for a moment.

 _Well she is good, and her polarity is slowing me down. Let's see if you can magnetize something that's not there._ Stepping back into the center of the ring now he sent out a few quick strikes letting them bounce harmlessly off her shield. _Is he wearing out?_ Pyrrha questioned, taking her chance to strike, aiming once again for his flank, only this time she met nothing. Her blade passed through air harmlessly, throwing her off balance. She suddenly felt a deathly chill come over her, like her bones had been replaced by ice. Before she could stumble forward her armor was grabbed from behind, dragging her back. As she was lifted off her feet a blade was pressed against her throat.

"Concede." Was the only word she heard.

"How?" Was all she could manage.

" **Concede.** " Lucien said again, a gravity in his voice that did the situation justice.

Her mind racing thinking of how she could get out of his grasp. Only a second had passed, but she had decided on her course of action. Swinging her elbow back aiming for his gut, yet once again she met only thin air and the feeling of ice in her blood. _How?!_ Suddenly the blade was withdrawn from her neck and the chill left her. Suddenly Lucien appeared in front of her, bowing deeply.

"Thank you for the invigorating match Miss Nikos." Was all he said to her before standing tall and addressing the wall of light where the seated student, and Glynda Goodwitch, should have been. "I concede."

"What?!" Pyrrha shouted. "Why?!"

"The fight was over, you wouldn't concede, if this was a real fight you wouldn't have a head right now." Lucien replied frankly, his words bringing the memory of a blade to her throat to her mind.

"I see." Pyrrha replied dejectedly. "Thank you for the excellent match, Mister La Fiere."

Suddenly the wall of light dissipated and there Glynda Goodwitch stood facing the two combatants.

"With Lucien La Fiere conceding, Pyrrha Nikos is the victor." She announced. "You two may return your gear to your lockers then take you seats."

"Thank you Professor." Pyrrha replied, heading off to the locker rooms.

"Thank you." Lucien said, beginning to head off in the direction of the lockers.

"Hold for a moment." Glynda said. "I would like to speak with you later. Come to my office in the bell tower after the last class of the day."

"Yes ma'am" Lucien said, barely containing his distaste.

 _Well that was a good match. Let's just hope I don't get kicked out on my first day for nearly beheading another student._ The greying man thought before heading to the lockers. _I think I'll keep these clothes though. Surprisingly well suited to my taste._ He thought wryly before removing his gauntlets and placing them in the locker. Just as he was leaving the locker room he was stopped by Pyrrha.

"You said you worked for the government." Pyrrha said. "Which military were you in?"

"I said I worked in government." Lucien said coldly. "Not for the government."

"What's the difference?" The young girl inquired.

"You figure it out and tell me." He replied cryptically.

Puzzled by his response she left him there and went back to her seat. Returning to his seat he could clearly see the redhead sitting down next to the blonde haired boy from that morning. _What was his name… Joane or something like that._ Watching them with mild interest he saw the boy take her hand and give it a firm squeeze. Soon enough she was leaning into him a slight amount, as if restraining herself from folding into his side and staying there for the rest of class. _Well I guess red likes Jaune's type. That's his name! Jaune._ The small realisation bringing him more joy than it should have. _God I'm getting mushy. Getting excited over remembering someone's name._

The rest of his first day passed rather uneventfully. Hearing whispers around the school about both his sudden appearance and the match earlier that day. Eating alone in a slightly less crowded corner of the cafeteria. Sitting through Port tell the most unbelievable story he had ever heard, especially because he recognized the story as one he had been witness to in his last year at Beacon. Eating alone again at dinner, hearing more and more whispers around the school about him. _This is the first day. Give it a week and the new toy syndrome will wear off._ He told himself repeatedly.

Soon enough it was the end of the day, all the upper level classes that ran longer than the first year's, finally wrapped up. _Time to go get myself expelled._ He thought grimly. Striding towards the bell tower in the middle of campus. Entering the lobby he walked directly over to the elevator, pausing, contemplating what would happen as soon as he exited the elevator.

 _Well let's get this little nostalgia trip over with. Soon enough I'll be back to work._


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Just wanted to say thanks for all the favorites and follows again, as well as to beg for reviews. Thanks for ready.**

Chapter 4

A Cloudless Rain

Stepping into the elevator and hitting the button all he could do was wait. His mind was focused on one thing, _work._ He loathed the idea of going back to that kind of work. He could turn to hunting, but he was uncertain of how the Huntsman Associations would treat him now. Finally arriving at the desired floor he stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the door labeled _Professor Goodwitch_. Pausing in front of it he contemplated leaving then, just taking his gear and leaving, he hadn't borought anything else with him, it would have been easy. Instead he stood tall and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Was all he got as an answer.

Entering he found that the office was fairly bare. A large oak desk, similar to the ones that all the other professors seemed to have, a window overlooking the rose gardens, and book shelves lining two walls. Behind the desk sat Glynda, fingers rubbing at her temples.

"Take a seat Lucien." She said motioning to the chair sitting in front of her desk.

"I'll stand thank you." He replied.

"Take the damn seat." She commanded.

"Ok ok… I'll sit." Sitting down he looked her level in the eye. _She's been crying._ Her eyes were red and her cheeks were still streaked from tears. _Well this is me breaking rule number seven._

"Do you know why I asked you here this evening?" Glynda asked, regaining some of her composure.

"I am assuming that it is because I almost beheaded another student today." Lucien said, an uncertainty in his voice. _Damn it! Why does she have to be teaching here?! Why did I have to come back here?! I should just get up and leave, I should just go live in a desert somewhere and let myself die of thirst._

"Yes." Glynda finally replied, interrupting his thoughts of death. "And because we need to get somethings straight if you are going to be a student here."

"Fine, what do you need to tell me?"

"First, your behavior in class was questionable at best. Training exercises aren't supposed to pose any threat to the student's lives. Today you told a 17 year old girl that you could have beheaded her. That is intolerable." Glynda stated with unmatchable gravity in her tone.

"This may be a school, but you are preparing these student for lives of combat and strife. They need to know what it's like to actually fight something willing to kill them, or even worse, someone willing." Lucien stated with power in his voice that commanded the attention of any who could hear.

"While you may be correct, the first year of training is not the time to start with such teaching!" Glynda countered.

"It is the only time!" Lucien said, forcing himself to stay seated. "They need to be aware. Aware of the real danger out there."

"And I assume you think you are the one to teach them that? Is that why you are here? To breed a whole new generation of killers?" She accused.

" **No, I wont' teach ever again!** " Lucien shouted, finally losing his composure and raising from his seat, hands gripping at nonexistent blades. His mask finally shattering, recalling memories of the apprentices lost to petty vengeance.

"Sit. Down. Or you are a dead man." Glynda threatened.

"Fine." Returning to his seat, Lucien took a few deep breaths, letting his anger subside.

"It doesn't matter how you view it. The combat training for first years will not be that deadly in my class. If you do it again I will have you expelled so you can go do that elsewhere."

"Understood."

"Now the other matter I wished to speak to you about." Glynda said, visibly tensing.

"Go ahead."

"I am sure that Ozpin told you the rules for your attendance here. I would like to make a few addendums." She explained.

"What are they then?" He asked, teeth gritted.

"Hide your wings."

"Didn't plan on showing them."

"Never address me as Glynda. You lost the right to do that 20 years ago."

"Yes, Ma'am." Lucien replied, putting extra emphasis on the last word.

"And finally before you go. I want to know why?"

"How come none of you can finish that sentence?" Lucien remarked snidely.

"Why did you leave?" She asked, her voice barely audible, but he heard her clearly.

"I had to." He explained, not giving any real answer. "It was a job, we needed the lien."

"No, why did you never come back?" She asked, her voice still a whisper, tears threatening to fall again.

"I had to."

"No you didn't. It was two years before I heard anything. Even then all I heard were rumors about a ghost with the wings of an angel going around killing crime bosses in their own homes."

"By that time all that was left was a ghost." Lucien said, his voice full of remorse.

"What the hell does that mean?" Glynda questioned.

"I wasn't the man you knew. I'm not the man you knew." Lucien replied. "He died that night. That night twenty years ago, he died. All he left was a weak husk. Weak and sentimental it seems."

"So that's why you are here? Sentimentality? That's it?"

"I guess." He replied lazily, as if all interest in the conversation had left him.

"You… Just give me a straight answer. Why did you never come back after you took that job?"

"You want the honest truth?"

"Of course you asinine shit!"

"That was the first time I killed a man."

"What?" She asked, astounded by his response. "Really? That was it?"

"Yeah, but the best part… oh... the best part…" He began, quiet laughter punctuating his words. "I enjoyed it." _Well this should keep her away from me for a while. Better than the truth at least._

"You can't be serious." She said, not believing his ruse for a single second. "The man I knew hated the very thought of human suffering. How could he go from being so fervently against the suffering of man in the morning, to being a serial killer that evening?"

"He did." Lucien replied, holding onto his ruse till the very last second. "Get used to that idea, cause that's the truth."

"I don't buy it. And until you tell me the truth, I will be seeing you here every evening till you do." She informed him dead set on getting her answers.

 _Shit! Of course you won't just drop it. Come on Angel get over this. It has been twenty years. You've had time to move on, time to mourn that guy._

"Fine, but this could go on for years and you wouldn't get any closer to the truth than you already are, 'cause Professor, it's sitting right in front of you." He said cooly.

"I doubt that." She said. "Now you may go. I'll see you here again tomorrow evening."

"Whatever." He replied as he began walking out.

He walked back to his dorm room in relative peace, most of the other student having taken up shelter in their dorms for the evening. On the way back he thought of what his lie for the next day would be, trying to figure out how he could convince her to leave it alone. Finally entering the dorm building he began the ascent up the stairs to the second floor when he was stopped by a now familiar voice.

"Hello, Lucien, I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?" Pyrrha said uncertainly, stopping him.

"Sure. Why don't you get your friends and gather in my dorm? It's the last one on the hall." He agreed, feeling sorry for the girl, she had obviously been quite shaken by their fight that morning.

"Ok, thank you."

"It's ok kid. Just want you to know that I'm gonna get in some serious trouble for this." Lucien joked. "But don't worry about that."

"Ok, thank you again, we'll be by in a few minutes." Pyrrha said as she ran up the stairs to go get her team.

Heading up to his dorm Lucien pondered what they would ask him. Not liking any of the directions it could go. _Well I better take this moment to relax, soon enough I'll be swamped with questions I can't answer, and then tomorrow I'll probably be running for my life._ A knock at the door signalled that it was time to put on the act that he had gotten very good at.

"Come in." He said, a hint of warmth in his voice.

"Good evening, Lucien." The perky brunette said, being the first into the room.

"Good evening, Miss Rose." He greeted warmly. "All of you come in and find a seat. I'm sure I'm going to be answering a lot of question tonight."

"Thank you for doing this Lucien." Pyrrha said as she entered with Jaune in tow.

"Yeah this is really cool of you man." The blonde girl, Yang, said as she followed suit dragging Blake in by the arm.

"Yes this is very generous of you." Blake said before taking a seat on one of the beds next to Yang.

"Please think nothing of it. I figured I owe Pyrrha for such an exhilarating match this morning." Lucien explained, a pleasant smile masking his regret at suggesting she bring her friends.

The rest of the group squeezed into the room, while they were making themselves comfortable Lucien took a moment to remember all their names. The bubbly ginger haired girl was Nora, her companion in green was Ren. Then there was team RWBY, their young leader Ruby, her partner Weiss, and the two eldest girls that appeared to be attached at the hip, Yang and Blake. All of them squeezed into his small room, all of them staring expectantly at him, as if waiting for him to just start explaining his life.

"You know I can't answer your questions if you don't ask them." He pointed out.

"Uuhhh… yeah… So Lucien, how did you beat me this morning?" Pyrrha asked, her hesitation written on her face.

"Think back. What were we supposed to be doing today? Using our semblances in combat. You used yours very creatively. Using it to slow me down instead of simply overpower me or completely disarm me. Against a less observant adversary it would have completely thrown them off, they wouldn't be able to explain it." Lucien explained, seeing the realisation dawn on their faces.

"So you are using your semblance to disappear!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Well sort of." Lucien corrected. "My semblance allows me to make myself incorporeal."

"WOAH!" Ruby shouted. "That's so cool. At first I thought you were moving so fast we couldn't see you, then I was like no maybe it's teleportation, but this is way cooler! You can become a ghost!"

"I guess you could say that. Let me show you, maybe it'll make more sense that way." He said as he let his arm fade away and passes it through a chair, letting his hand reappear on the other side.

"That is so awesome!" Ruby exclaimed, her friends offering up similar replies.

"You still haven't told me what you used to do before coming to Beacon." Pyrrha stated.

"No and I'm still waiting for you to tell me what you think I did." He said.

"You told Pyrrha you worked in government, you know how to fight, correction, you know how to kill, and you can become a ghost." Weiss said, speaking for the first time since greeting him. Looking him in the eye, conveying an understanding that threatened his cover. "You were a mercenary. Weren't you?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?!" Yang shouted at the heiress.

"An informed one." Weiss stated. "He has the skills, a semblance that would make him extremely efficient, and he is extremely cryptic about his past work. Oh and 'I worked in government' practically screams 'I killed a corrupt politician for money'."

"Holy shit Weiss! What the hell would make you say that?!" Jaune shouted.

"If you would all calm down I could answer her question." Lucien said calmly, his facade holding strong.

After a long beat everyone returned to their original positions and looked back to him. Their eyes asking for many different things, one pair wanted gratification, one pair was scared witless, others were simply curious, and the rest were asking for him to lie and say it wasn't true.

"I worked as an independant contractor for various local and area governments. As an accountant. Before that I was a huntsman for a short time. I attended Beacon when I was your age." Lucien replied, only hiding as much truth as he had to.

"Well I guess that explains how you know how to fight. But accounting? Really? Could you get any more dull. I was hoping for something with more flair to it. Well I guess the stories in our heads don't always hold up under the light of day." Weiss said, shooting him a knowing look.

 _She doesn't buy it. Smart girl, probably has rich parents who have done some things that would make them targets._

"Well then, I'm sorry I don't live up to your romantic ideal of adventure and death." Lucien replied with a chuckle. "By the way. Are you a Schnee? I heard the heiress attended Beacon and you look very much like Winter Schnee."

"That's ok, I guess reality is a little more comforting." The heiress said. "And yes I am a Schnee."

"Well then I'm sure you have heard your fair share of tales about contract killers. Do I really look like a payed killer to you?" He asked, spreading his arms out as if asking for their appraisal.

"Nope, you remind me of some teachers I had at Signal." Ruby said cheerily.

After their little exchange of quips the tension in the room was almost entirely lifted. The rest of their time together was spent asking and answering questions about what it was like being a huntsman, how Beacon had changed, and other trivial things. Just before he was about to call it a night Blake asked a question he had hoped no one would be willing to.

"Is there history between you and Professor Goodwitch?" She asked.

"Blake, I have history with all your professors. We went to school together." He explained.

"Yeah but with Goodwitch there was this… tension." She said.

"Yeah there is a bit of history between me and Professor Goodwitch. But that's just what it is. History." He said with a note of finality. "Now anymore questions before I kick you all out for the night?"

"Nope! I'm good." Ruby said, perking up at the thought of bed, at some point she had become so tired that she curled up into the side of her partner, Weiss simply letting it happen.

"Ok children. Your leader has spoken. Off to bed with you all." He said, standing and stretching. "Don't need you all falling asleep in class and getting me in even more trouble."

They all stood up and stretched, giving their farewells and leaving him in peace. Basking in the sudden silence he laid back in his bed, finally relaxing his mask. The cracks in his face deepening and the years catching up all at once. Hours of hiding his past cascading into a crushing tiredness. Letting his sudden exhaustion take him he fell into another fitful night of slumber. Waking early again the next day.

Almost repeating the previous day he walked through the halls of the school, hearing even more whispers. Sitting through the same classes, listening to history he already knew, some of which he had a hand in shaping. Watching students spar and appraising their abilities. Occasionally being stopped by a Professor wondering what he was doing there. Eating alone in a corner of the dining hall. The tedium already driving him mad. The only thing he looked forward to was his talk with Glynda, anxious to see how she would attack him this time.

His days toiled away like this for two weeks. Each day becoming more dreadful than the last, and each evening becoming more exhilarating. He always looked forward to the combat of words he would engage in at the end of the day. Each day she dug deeper and he hit back harder, some nights he would almost cave, and others she would almost shed a tear. Each time it got more and more intense, till one night something suddenly gave, and the walls they had both put up crumbled down.

"I'm growing tired of these little exchanges." Glynda said exasperatedly one evening.

"Oh really? I find them quite enjoyable." Lucien replied honestly.

"I think that's the first honest thing you've said since we began this little war." She quipped.

"No, that's just the first honest thing you've believed."

"Well how can you expect me to believe 'I had to leave' as a good answer?"

"It's the best one I have." Lucien snapped back.

"How is that the best you've got?" Glynda said, her voice rising in tenor.

"Because the truth is I don't have better one!" Lucien lied, his voice raising to match hers.

"You are lying! I know you! And I know you are lying!" She shouted standing from her seat.

"Of course I am!" He shouted back standing to match her. "I was payed to kill a man! I took his life! I had blood on my hands! I couldn't come back to you like that Angel!"

"What did you just call me?" Glynda asked, her voice dropping to a whisper she knew only he could hear.

"I said I killed a man, _Angel_." He replied, putting emphasis on his former pet name for Glynda. "I was payed to kill a man."

"I asked you to never call me that again."

"No, you said to never call you Glynda again." He replied pompously.

"It doesn't matter." She replied, her voice rising again. "Add that to the list of thing to never say to me again."

"Fine." He replied. "But now you know. I couldn't bring myself to return to you _covered_ in blood."

"You had returned to me covered in blood before." She said. "Blood never bothered me."

"I never returned to you covered in someone else's blood!" He shouted, his anger rising. "I had never returned to you a murder!"

"You told me that the mission was dead or alive!" She shouted back. "Why did you kill him then?!"

"The mission changed! The details got in the way!"

"So you thought that you couldn't return to me because I wouldn't be understanding? Because you thought I'd be repulsed?!" She questioned.

"I didn't return because I was disgusted! Because I was repulsed!" He screamed back. Taking a step back from the desk.

"So you just ran off and kept killing?" She screamed taking a step forward to keep the same distance between them.

"Not at first… NO… I planned to never kill again." He said taking another step back his voice dropping to a shaking rasp. "No I never wanted to kill again."

"So tell me! How did you become the _most feared killer in Remnant_? How did you become that monster Morningstar?!" She shouted her words laden with sarcastic ire, making him cower back another step.

"The jobs slowly became more and more unscrupulous. Eventually I just got used to the killing I guess. That's when I became Morningstar. That's when the man you loved truly died." He whispered back, the past returning to him in a flood of painful memories. Memories of every life he was payed to end. Memories that seemed to belong to someone else. Memories that he didn't want to have.

"So that's it! What a fucking cop out!" She screamed, her voice hoarse. "You just let yourself keep killing?"

"I guess that's what happened." He replied, his will completely broken.

"What, all out of witty retorts? Or horrifying tales of death and gore?" She snapped, letting her voice drop as she took another step forwards.

Gazing down into her eyes he could see the dams waiting to burst. An old instinct had him leaning in, closing the gap between them, placing a gentle kiss on the crown of her head. His hands pulling her into a long forgotten embrace. Soon he felt a warm damp spot appear on his shoulder.

"Don't cry Angel. Please don't cry over me." He whispered into her hair.

"I'm not crying over you, you extraordinary asshole." She whispered back. "I'm crying for the idiot who thought he couldn't come home."

"Please don't say that. Please don't say that you would have accepted me after that." He pleaded, the final walls that help in his long denied emotions breaking down.

"There was a time when I could have. That was twenty years ago."

"And that's how it should be." He said, the long denied tears finally leaving his eyes.

Holding her for what seemed an eternity, they simply cried together. They cried for what was lost so long ago. Eventually he tired of standing and lowered them to the floor, cradling Glynda in his lap, letting his semblance fall completely. The moment his wings rustled against the wall Glynda stopped her sobbing, looking up over his shoulder and seeing the now scarred and tattered white wings. The signs of the strife and pain he had wrought upon himself only bringing more tears to her eyes. Letting herself feel the pain she had denied for years.

They sat and cried together for hours, just holding each other, mourning some great unexplainable loss. As night drew upon them proper they stopped crying, but they still held each other, neither able to let go of the sliver of the past they had discovered. Soon the moon had risen to its apex and began to shine through the window into the office. Illuminating the pair, cradled in each other's' arms, sound asleep, both experiencing the deepest sleep they had in a very long time. Lucien only stirred once, looking down upon the woman in his arms, her face illuminated by the moon the only thing he could think about.

 _God you are so beautiful when you sleep, my Angel. I've missed you. I will miss you._


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Thanks again for all the Favs and Follows. It's really encouraging to see people reading this story. Here's the new chapter. Enjoy.**

Chapter 5

A New Day

The sun peaked through the window of Glynda's office, slowly illuminating the scene of the fight that had occurred the previous night. Slowly the light reached the face of Lucien, still sitting with his back to the wall, cradling Glynda in his arms. From her place in his arms she could see the content expression he wore in his sleep. A small smile gracing her face, reminded of the days when he would wake before her and just stare like she was now.

 _He sleeps so soundly in the most uncomfortable places._ She thought, simply enjoying the fleeting moments of comfort that remained. _Soon enough we will be back at each other's throats, I guess that's the way things are now. Last night only showed me how far he thinks he's fallen._

"Stop staring at me." Lucien said suddenly, causing Glynda to jump, only to find that she was being held in place by two strong arms.

"You're awake." She stated dumbly, words escaping her.

"I always woke before you. That hasn't changed." He replied, his eyes still shut.

"Please let me go." She requested, feeling his grip on her slacken off, a feeling she did not enjoy. _Old habits die so damn hard. Why couldn't you have been an asshole about all of this instead of breaking down like that?_

"I'm sorry for what happened last night. I know sorry is rarely enough, but I hope my deeds will back up my words." He said. "Nothing like this will ever happen again. I will maintain a professional relationship with you and that is all. I give you my word."

"Thank you." She said dejectedly as she raised herself up from his lap, rearranging her clothes to look more proper.

"Have a good day Professor Goodwitch." Lucien said as he stood and turned to leave.

"Lucien, wait a moment." Glynda began. "We need to talk about what happened."

"No Professor, I think we talked enough last night, I have nothing more to add. If you do please say it now. When I leave this room I don't intend to ever come back." He replied. His cold exterior returning.

"Lucien, I don't think you died that day. I want to hate you for running, most of me does, but we were lovers once, friends once, and I want you to know that I still hold some hope for you." She confided.

"Thank you, but please don't waste the effort." He replied coldly before walking out the door.

 _Back to being a statue of ice. Well as much as I miss the man he used to be, I hate the man he's become._

Glynda left her office, heading towards her staff quarters, deciding on a much needed shower and change of clothes. Walking into a larger version of the dorms the students stayed in, she walked over to the wardrobe that help all of her clothes. Opening it she pulled out her usual outfit of white and black. Taking it with her to her bathroom she showered and began to dress. Half dressed she looked in the mirror and had a change of heart. Walking back to her wardrobe she placed her first choice of clothing back in and pulled out a selection she hadn't worn in quite some time.

Finally dressed she looked in the mirror again and found the selection satisfied her. It was a light blue blouse that showed the barest amount of cleavage, a light cream coloured skirt, and leather boots the same shade as her skirt. Forgoing her usual cape, she wore her emblem as a pendant she had been given years ago, the pendant was made from silver and cut sapphires, it complimented her skin exquisitely. _I haven't worn anything this colourful in years. It's strange to be wearing this again._ She thought, thumbing the pendant.

Walking at a brisk pace to her lecture hall she made it in time to prepare for her first class of the day, second years. _They alway get cocky in their second year, they think that because they survived the first year that the next will be easy. I'm in a good mood, let's make today interesting._ As she plotted how to make the second year's lives hell the paced around the arena. When she heard the first student filter in she took her place behind the podium. As soon as the first bell rang she went straight into her short lecture and then began selecting students for the day's sparring.

As the bell dismissed the second year students she gathered her notes and prepared for the first years. As she heard the first student walk in she looked up from her podium and her eyes fell upon Lucien walking in and taking his seat at the back of the class, her breath catching for a moment. _I thought he would have skipped out by now._ Within minutes the rest of the students had filtered in and the bell had rung.

"Okay class, today we will be taking a break from sparring and we will be working on aura manipulation. Get with your partner and start working on projecting your aura for ten seconds at at time. After you've worked on that far a bit we'll move on to something else." She instructed.

The student paired up and began working on projecting their auras. The only student alone was Lucien, this was nothing new, whenever they did something that involved a partner he either sat it out or did it alone. Today he was sitting alone and projecting his snow white aura out around him with ease. Students near him were beginning to stare at him, watching his aura shift from a snowy white to a stormy grey, all the way to a deep black, before it began shifting back to white again, the sign of a tortured psyche. _They are staring now. These kids need to learn tact_ Lucien thought, his eyes closed.

"Staring isn't nice children." He said loud enough for those close to him to hear.

Startled the students jumped, turning away and returning to their own practice. Soon enough student were staring again, this time more joined them, whispers rising up around the room. _Mind your own business. It's just an aura, you've all got one_. Lucien thought, feeling the eyes on him again. Letting his aura draw back within himself, ready to give the nearby students a tongue lashing, but what he saw when he opened his eyes startled him. The entire room was staring at him, not a single pair of eyes wavered from him.

"What?! Have none of you ever seen an aura before?" He shouted to the class, most students flinched but continued to stare.

"We didn't mean to stare! Your aura is just… strange." Ruby said, her voice trailing off on the last word.

"Strange? I'm not sure how I should take that." Lucien replied.

"It was pretty, and scary too." Ruby replied, getting a few nods of agreement from her friends.

"I'm just gonna let this all go now." He said, noticing that most of the other students had turned back to what they were doing. "I suggest you do the same and go back to your own practice."

"My La Fiere. I would prefer it if you didn't try and lecture my students on proper etiquette." Glynda said. "Now all of you return to your own practice. You have five more minutes of this before we move on to use of your semblances."

The few students who were still staring at Lucien returned to their own practice, still glancing back on occasion. Lucien just sat there and waited for the signal to move on to the next task, growing tired of the hours spent learning about aura manipulation, once again regretting coming back to Beacon. Soon enough he had another excuse to draw stares as the class was instructed to practice use of their semblances.

Enjoying the chance to flex is metaphysical muscles, Lucien started by fading his limbs to nothing, then he stretched out a bit further and let his entire body fade away. Standing from his seat he glided through the rows of practicing students, causing the occasional gasp to rise as a deathly chill touched a student. Coming to rest in front of Glynda he stood just within an arm's reach of her. Sensing a presence in front of her, she reached a hand out in front of her and waved it directly through Lucien's torso. A chill confirming her suspicions she quietly she cleared her throat.

"Lucien go back to your seat." She said quietly.

"I never left it." Lucien called out, already back in his seat. A smirk plastered to his face, not noticing a very important part of his body had transitioned back to the material world with the rest of him.

"I believe you forgot something." Glynda said, pointing at her shoulder.

"Oh shit!" Lucien exclaimed, realising that he had forgotten to keep his wings immaterial. Quickly letting them fade out, he adjusted himself in his seat, glancing around. Most of the students had learned their lesson and had ignored him, but his favorite little first years were staring at him wide eyed. _Well shit. It's gonna be another late night of questioning, isn't it?_

The rest of class passed fairly uneventfully, Lucien keeping his wandering to a minimum. Periodically he would catch team JNPR staring at him, questioning looks on their faces.

As the bell rang and he got up to leave he found that he was stuck in a now familiar scenario.

"Mr. La Fiere." Glynda began. "Please be a little more cautious in the future."

"Yes ma'am." He replied.

"Good, now I'll make an exception to the rules and let you explain what happened to team JNPR. I believe they will be waiting for you outside."

"They probably will be." Lucien answered grudgingly.

Walking out the door he found just that. Team JNPR stood waiting for him, questions ready on their tongues.

"No. Not here. Same as last time. My room, after dinner." Lucien said before anyone could voice their questions.

"Ok, but there are going to be a lot of questions." Jaune said.

"Actually, I just have one!" Nora said. "Did we see you with mffmf!"

"Nora, shut up." Ren said, muffling her questions with his hand.

"For now let's get to class." Lucien said, leading the way to the next class, dragging an entourage of confused teens behind him.

The rest of his morning went as could be expected, with JNPR trying to weasel information out of him, to which he alway responded with a command to wait till later. At lunch things finally came to a head and JNPR could wait no longer.

"Ok are you going to tell us or not?!" Jaune said exasperatedly.

"Like I said, later. Hold your questions till then. Or you won't get any answers." Lucien replied frostily.

"Fine, but answer one thing now." Jaune demanded. "Did we see you with wings or what?"

"Yes." Lucien replied.

"I knew it!" Jaune shouted in triumph. "Wait, you said yes? Like we weren't hallucinating?"

"Yes." He replied again.

"Ok now i'm just getting confused." Jaune said dejectedly.

"Good, now save it till later." Lucien said, getting up to dump his tray and leave. Walking out he passed Glynda.

"Lucien, I expect you will make sure they keep whatever you tell them a secret?" She said, stopping him.

"Of Course ma'am." He replied.

"Good." She said leaving him and walking to her place at one of the faculty tables.

 _Well she has gotten even colder. I guess last night didn't happen. That's probably a good thing._ He thought as he headed to his next class. As always he was early to it and took his seat, deciding on a nap, as he always did. However his nap was interrupted early by the sound of clicking heels. The clicking gradually grew louder and more irritating until it stopped next to him. Opening his eyes he saw a white haired teen standing in front of him, glaring down at him like she was looking at a pile of shit on the sidewalk.

"What do you want princess?" He asked.

"You have my friends freaking out, and more importantly you have given my girlfriend a death wish." Weiss explained. "So I have a bone to pick with you Mr. Contract Killer."

"You figured it out huh?" He asked. "I knew you were a bright one, and considering your status it's not surprising you've heard of me. Keep it to yourself would you."

"Of course I figured it out. What do you take me for an idiot?" She said.

"No, just a wishy washy teenager." He chided.

"Shut up and listen." She said. "Ruby is going to challenge you soon. If I see you try anything like you did with Pyrrha I will personally rip your testacles off and shove them down your throat."

"You can't hurt something that's not there." He remarked as he let himself fade away.

"You son of a bitch." Weiss said, stomping off to her own seat.

 _Well this is an annoying turn of events. I have enough shit to deal with. Actually...I don't… Maybe this will be interesting._ He thought lazily, staring off into empty space. When the bell for class rang he brought himself back into the physical world and half heartedly listened to the lecture on the operation of Huntsman Associations. Contemplating what would most likely be an interesting week to come, questioning from teenagers later that night, a fight with the scythe wielding girl soon, and what was sure to be an interesting conversation with Weiss after that.

 _Well I have been bored out of my mind lately. It'll be nice to have some excitement._


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: As always thanks for the reviews and follows. Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

Chapter 6

A Dying Day

Lucien spent the rest of his day contemplating all that had occurred that morning. When dinner finally came he sat alone again, eating quickly and leaving before most of the other students. Heading towards his dorm right after for the first time in two weeks. Arriving at his room he went straight to his wardrobe which he had filled the previous weekend with a trip to Vale. Taking out a set of more comfortable clothes he changed into his signature black and greys. Sitting down on the bed he decided to take another one of his notorious naps before team JNPR arrived, most likely dragging team RWBY with them.

Soon enough there was a knock on his door that signaled the arrival of his guests. Sitting up he called for them to enter, watching the familiar scene of the teens entering his room. After they had all been seated he took a look at them. The teams had the same looks upon their faces that they wore the first time they came to question him.

"Let me just cut you off before you can ask anything. Yes you saw me with wings." Lucien began. "No you cannot see them. Yes I am a faunus."

"Ok well that answers almost all of our questions." Jaune said, taking the lead this time. "But we have one more. How are you hiding them?"

"Wow you kids are dumber than I thought." Lucien replied. "Isn't it obvious, I use my semblance."

"Well no shit." Yang said, as frank as ever. "Our question is how are you keeping your semblance up all the time?"

"Well that's easy. Practice. When you have been using your semblance everyday for most of your life you get really good with it." He explained.

"Really? Just practice?" Jaune questioned, somewhat disappointedly. "I thought you had some secret or trick you used."

"Nope kid, just practice. Why so disappointed?" Lucien said, then realization dawned on him. "You don't know your semblance yet do you?"

"No, not yet." Jaune replied, averting his eyes.

"Ha, wow… never would have guessed. No I take that back, I should have guessed." Lucien said mockingly.

"Hey get off his case!" Yang said. "How long did it take you to find your semblance? Huh?"

"I was five." He replied cooly.

"See! Wait… five? As in the the number of fingers on your hand?" Yang asked, expressing the surprise the entire group felt.

"Yeah, five. When you have something that's hard to hide you kinda wish to disappear. One day I did." He explained unabashedly.

"Wow…That's… Shit…" Yang replied, shocked by his candid nature.

"Any other questions? Comments? Smart ass remarks?" He asked sarcastically.

"No I think that covers it." Pyrrha spoke up, looking to her friends for confirmation.

"No, I have one more question." Jaune said, looking up from his lap. "Will you train me?"

"Nope." Lucien replied curtly.

"Ok. I figured as much… Who'd want to teach a loser like me?" Jaune said looking back to his lap, his hand balling into fists.

"Jaune, don't talk about yourself like that." Pyrrha said, placing a hand on his back to comfort him.

"Hey kid, I didn't call you a loser. You got potential. It's just that I do not, let me repeat that, Not, teach anymore." Lucien explained, a hint of guilt in his voice.

"You taught?" Weiss said, finally breaking the silence she had maintained. "What did you teach? _Tax filing?_ "

"No, I taught kids who couldn't afford schools like Beacon." Lucien replied, his voice thick with snide.

"Ah so you lead hapless children to their deaths at the hands of grimm?" Weiss barked back.

"No. I taught kids just like Jaune, or kids who'd have had to fake their way into Beacon. Kids whose families got killed in war. Kids who needed help. If you want to call me scum for teaching kids who wanted to do good than go ahead, I won't lose any sleep over it." Lucien said, his voice low and threatening.

"Whatever. You are obviously hiding more than your wings." Weiss said bitterly.

"Weiss! What is up with you?!" Ruby asked, looking at her partner dumbfounded.

"Oh come on! You guys can't believe he was an accountant. He bested Pyrrha, he is always giving cryptic answers, the teachers don't like him being here." Weiss stated, looking at her friends like they were idiots.

 _God damn it Schnee shut your mouth, you are just as infuriating as your mother._ Lucien thought, suddenly remembering one of the few times he passed up on a job.

 _~ Four Years Ago ~_

He had been contacted by the wife of a mega-corporation's president. She had a very well paying job that she was only willing to offer to one man. She arranged to meet him at one of her family's vacation homes, Lucien seeing no threat in meeting her decided to show. He now stood in a lavishly furnished parlor, staring down at a dark haired woman.

"So you are the famous Mrs. Schnee?" Lucien asked, thoroughly unimpressed.

"Yes, I am. To be honest I am surprised that the infamous Morningstar would even show up." She responded, just as unimpressed.

"Well that's a lot of lien." He explained. "And besides, what's killing for a massive and corrupt corporation?"

"Yes what is it to the likes of you, and while that is all well and good the job I have for you has little to do with killing." She explained. "The offer I have for you is a long term job protecting something extremely valuable to me."

"So you want me to babysit an heirloom?" He asked. "No thanks. I have much more interesting things to do than sit around waiting for a thief that may never come."

"What I need protecting isn't some valuable item. It's a person. Someone very dear to me." Mrs. Schee said.

"Oh you want me to be a bodyguard?" He asked, before answering. "No thank you."

"You don't even know who I want protected. How can you so casually refuse so much money?" She asked, shocked by his disinterest.

"Simple, I don't do bodyguard work anymore. Also I don't need the money, I've got plenty of other jobs I could do that would pay me just as much." He explained nonchalantly.

"So you would rather go on killing for the rest of your days, instead of taking a long term job doing something that might one day be worthwhile for the good of many people?" She asked, determined to succeed.

"Pretty much. I can do a lot of good killing one politician a day, instead of protecting your daughter for the rest of her days." He said, seeing the surprised look on her face at the mention of her daughter he pressed on. "Oh yeah don't think I'm stupid, you don't live long in my business if you aren't at least above average. I figured you would want me to protect you daughter that minute you told me it wasn't some piece of replaceable art or gems."

"Well then, if money and boredom are your concerns those can easily be solved. Just name your price and you will have it, and as for remedying your boredom, my daughter Weiss is following in the footsteps of her older sister and is attending a huntsman academy. I'm sure there will be plenty there to keep you entertained." Mrs. Schnee offered.

"That's an even bigger no. If she's gonna become a huntress I am not getting involved. That's how she gets killed by a beowulf." He said, his tone lighthearted but his eyes cold.

"I can offer you anything you want, just name it and it will placed at your feet." She pleaded.

"Redemption." Lucien said, his entire being cold.

Mrs. Schnee couldn't say anything, she just sat there staring at the killer in front of her. All he wanted was redemption, yet he paradoxically kept killing. Unable to fathom his logic, she resorted to false promises.

"Protecting the life of an innocent could be the first step on your road to redemption." She offered, attempting to sound wise but coming across as haughty.

Her words made Lucien pause, contemplating his next words carefully.

"I doubt she needs the protections of a killer. If she is training to become a huntress she must already be skilled and strong willed. I don't think a grimm is gonna take her down to easily. So what do you really want me to protect her from?" He asked, sure that she had some deeper reason for asking him to protect her daughter than simple worry.

"I want you to protect my daughter from her family." Mrs. Schnee explained, a shamed expression painted on her firm features. "I want you to protect her from my husband's family. They are vicious and bitter, obsessed with legacy and wealth."

"Lady what you need is a better husband. Not a bodyguard." Lucien replied.

"What I need is a deterrent. What I need, is your help." She pleaded.

"No, that's my final answer. I won't take the job. What I can do, is give you my word that the SDC will ever have to worry about me." Lucien said. "Don't think it's for any good reason. I just don't want the SDC as an enemy. That's the best I can do and that's all I'm going to do."

"I see there is no convincing you. Fine then. Have a good day. Please see yourself out." Mrs. Schnee said, watching in silent astonishment as Lucien faded away into nothingness.

 _~Present Day~_

"Lucien… Mr. La Fiere…" Ruby said, waving a hand in front of his face, trying to shake him from his memories.

"I'm sorry, I spaced out for a moment didn't I?" He asked.

"Yeah you said something about Weiss's mom then you totally zoned out…" Ruby explained. "Do you know Weiss's parents?"

"Children, it's time to go." He said, ignoring Ruby's question.

"NO. You are going to tell us who the hell you are and how the hell you know my mother!" Weiss shouted at him, her hands balled up into fists by her sides.

"No. I am not going to do that. You are going to leave. No more questions. No more answers. Jaune we start training tomorrow at 5:30 AM in the training arena. You get one chance. If you are late then it never happens again." Lucien said firmly, ending the conversation.

"Yes sir." Jaune said shocked before rising to leave. "Team JNPR we are going to bed."

The rest of Team JNPR was shocked by the sudden change in their leader's demeanor, but followed his instructions. They all stood and followed Jaune out and down the hall to their dorm. Team RWBY stood and began to leave as well but before she left Weiss stopped and stared Lucien down.

"We are not done. You will tell me how you know my mother or the faculty will know that _The Morningstar_ is attending their school." She threatened, putting as much sarcasm into his former moniker as possible.

"Ha, good one princess. But I think they already knew that one. I went to school with your teachers. They knew who I was the second I knocked on their door." He replied, unfazed by her threat.

The heiress was stunned by this knowledge, a flustered blush rising to her face she stormed out in a huff, slamming his door behind her. _God she has a temper. What an annoying girl._ Leaning back into his bed, once again exhausted by the questioning. Soon he was fading into slumber, just before he was completely enveloped in sleep's grasp his scroll buzzed. Groaning he raised himself up and reached for it. Glancing at the number he groaned again before answering it.

"Hello Professor. What can I do for you tonight?" He asked.

"Lucien we need to talk." Ozpin said on the other end of the line.

"I'll be in your office in a minute." He answered, before hanging up and heading towards the door before deciding that flying would be quicker. Phasing into nothingness he hovered in mid air and kicked off against nothing, propelling himself through the air simply by thought.

 _I wonder how I can do this when I can't touch anything? I never actually thought about how I can even move when I phase my entire body out. I guess it's just part of the mystery of aura and dust._

In less than half the time it would have taken him to walk he was standing in Ozpin's office. Fading into existence in front of Ozpin's desk he took a seat quietly and waited for Ozpin to start.

"Lucien, we got a disturbing call tonight from another student on your dorm." Ozpin began before he was interrupted by Lucien.

"Yeah I figured Weiss would call you. She figured out who I am. Kinda figured one of the wealthier students would have." Lucien said, cutting Ozpin off.

"Yes this was something I should have foreseen." Ozpin said. "But you know the rules we have"

"Ah yes the rules! The glorious rules with glorious loopholes. I didn't tell her who I was, she figured it out. So if you want to expel me or worse, go ahead." Lucien replied, his tone harsh.

"No, I don't think any of that will be necessary. I will speak with Miss Schnee and explain the situation. Or some variation of it." Ozpin explained calmly. "But what I find more troubling than that is the other bit of information she told me when she called."

"And what would that be?" Lucien asked.

"That you have agreed to train Jaune Arc." Ozpin replied. "While this school encourages training outside of class, your students have reputation for dying. I don't want that reputation being upheld by one of my students."

"I don't intend to let it. I bet he won't even show up for our first session, and I have only given him one chance. If he fucks it up on the first day he won't be a student of mine." Lucien replied.

"Let's play devil's advocate, shall we? Let's say he does show up on time and he does preform well enough for you to continue training him. What's to keep him from becoming a victim to one of your numerous enemies?" Ozpin asked.

"I don't have many enemies. The ones that were actually a threat died, and the ones that are still around don't know I'm here. I fell off their radars when I came here, I made sure of that." Lucien assured him.

"Good. But that doesn't answer my question. How can you guarantee that my students will be safe?"

"For one I won't be teaching him how to do what I did. Two I'll be teaching him. If he can't survive an attack from some petty criminals after a week of training with me than he shouldn't even be here." Lucien stated.

"Well then, I see no problem with letting this go on, save for one thing. Give me your word that you will protect Jaune Arc and his friends should any of you enemies come for you." Ozpin said, his face a mask of serenity, but his tone a serious one.

"Done." Lucien said. "But that won't happen."

"We shall see. Don't let any other students find out about your past and we won't have anymore problems. Now I suggest you get some rest. I have a feeling that you have some early mornings ahead of you." Ozpin said, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Good night Oz. It was… pleasant as always." Lucien said as he faded away and began floating back to his dorm. Arriving in his dorm he phased back into the physical plane. Turning off the lights in his room he laid down and tried to get some much needed sleep. Soon enough he was awoken by his own tossing and turning, checking his alarm he saw that is was almost five in the morning and time to get ready for his first lesson with Jaune. Going through his normal morning routine, save for the uniform, opting for his black and grey combat gear instead. Leaving his room to go to the arena he was almost knocked over by Jaune, who was tightening his belt as he walked down the hall the wrong direction.

"Jaune, you are going the wrong direction." Lucien said in the way of a greeting.

"Yeah I...uh… I realized that." The blonde boy replied.

"Well come along then. Let's go get our weapons." Lucien instructed.

"Uh… what? We are going to start with weapons today? I thought we would start with like… I don't know… like an evaluation or something?" Jaune asked.

"Why do you think we need our weapons?" The greying man asked.

"Ah yeah… I guess those would help." Jaune replied.

Soon enough they had arrived at their lockers and began equipping themselves. In the silence of the morning all that could be heard was the clicking of buckles and the stretching of leather straps. A few minutes later they stood in front of each other in the middle of the arena. Lucien appraising Jaune with the critical eye of a teacher.

"Come at me, with intent and purpose. Try and land a hit on me." Lucien instructed.

Jaune took his stance, loose and somewhat sloppy, but it kept his center of gravity low and let him stay mobile. Waiting for a moment that felt right Jaune took two swift steps forward and to his right, putting him on Lucien's weaker side aiming a cut at his shoulder, only to have it deflected by one of Lucien's arm blades.

"Keep trying till you can't anymore." Lucien demanded.

Jaune replied by backing off a few steps and pushing back at Lucien's defense, only to be deflected again. He kept trying for another ten minutes before his sword arm began to tire from the shock of being pushed back constantly. Choosing to take a different approach he raised his shield up and jabbed the point at Lucien's jaw, when the shield's mass hit the raised blade it didn't bounce off, instead Jaune kept pushing it forward, binding Lucien's dominant arm. While his opponent's dominant arm was occupied and his vision obscured by the shield in his face, Jaune sent a quick jab at Lucien's right thigh. Lucien attempted to block it but at the last second Jaune flicked the tip of his blade upwards and to the right, catching Lucien in the bicep of his left arm.

"Good, you managed to land a hit. That's very impressive." Lucien commended as he backed away, rubbing his arm slightly checking to see that his aura caught the entirety of the blow.

"Really? I thought you let me have that." Jaune asked disbelieving.

"No I didn't, well I guess I did, but that doesn't matter. You are much better than you give yourself credit for, but you have a long way to go to catch up with your girlfriend." Lucien said.

"Yeah Pyrrha is pretty good." Jaune agreed, blushing slightly at the mention of her.

"But given some time I'm sure you'll be on her level. If you can keep getting up early. That rule stays in place." Lucien assured the boy.

"I figured as much." Jaune said defeatedly.

"Good, now let's get back to it. Do it again." Lucien instructed.

They spent the next hour in the same way before they had to shower and go to breakfast. After they had showered and stowed their weapons the walked towards the dining hall and got their breakfast, discussing the things that Jaune needed to improve upon when it came to melee combat. They were finally interrupted when Pyrrha and the rest of team JNPR came and took their seats round the table.

"There you are Jaune, when you weren't there when we all got up we figured you would be with Lucien." Pyrrha said, a smile lighting up her face when she sat down next to Jaune.

"Yeah I met Lucien on my way to the arena." Jaune said, a smile gracing his face as well.

"Well how did it go? Did you get your butt kicked?" Nora asked from across the table, eliciting a groan from Ren.

"No butt kicking this morning." Lucien said, finally greeting them. "Your boy did well, Pyrrha, he has potential. I get the feeling he has already been training with a mentor."

"Yeah… I may have been helping him after class." Pyrrha replied sheepishly.

"I figured as much, he fights a bit like you, but sloppier." Lucien said before going into detail about their morning session of training. Eventually he was breaking down every bout, everything from the timing of the blows to the strategies that worked. Pyrrha listened with an interested expression, growing more and more pleased each time Lucien described a successful attempt. Soon enough she had a beaming smile upon her face, not only at the success of her boyfriend, but at the good mood it seemed to put the older man in.

"Well I need to get going, gotta get my nap in before class. I'll see you all there." Lucien said as he stood to empty his tray. "Oh and Jaune, you did well today, but tomorrow is when the real fun starts. Be there at the same time."

As Lucien walked away a hush fell over the table, though he may have said that with a light hearted tone, the message he sent was obviously received, it was going to get harder. Walking to class and going through his usual motions of sitting in the back and napping till the bell rang. Sitting through the first class of the day he walked leisurely to the next class when he remembered the threat Weiss had given him. Picking up his pace he was suddenly anxious to get to the arena he had been in not more than two hours ago.

Choosing to sit in an empty seat closer to the front today, he sat and thought about the possible fight he had ahead of him. He had seen Ruby fight a number of times in this arena, and he always enjoyed seeing the young girl dance around her enemy landing blow after blow with her scythe before finishing them off with a point blank shot from her sniper rifle. She was very skilled, and he wanted to see just how skilled she was. Soon enough the bell had rung and Glynda was at the front of the class talking about that day's agenda.

"Ok now let's begin sparring, any volunteers or challenges?" Glynda asked the class.

A hand cloaked in red and black shot up.

"Yes professor. I would like to challenge Lucien." Ruby said full of pep and grit.

"Very well, Lucien do yo-" Glynda began before Lucien cut her off.

"Yeah I'll go up against her." He replied. He left to equip his weapons for the second time that morning. Walking out to the center of the arena he saw Glynda quietly talking to Ruby. Listening closer he heard her trying to talk Ruby out of the match. Ruby, however, wouldn't have any of it. She was ready and wanted to take him on. They stepped into the center of the arena, shook hands, and backed off to take their stances.

 _This will be fun. Get to see what my student has in the way of competition. Shit did I just call Jaune my student? Oh shit!_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Dancing

Ruby blasted into the fight, taking advantage of a distracted opponent. Aiming a quick swipe at Lucien's neck, she forced him back into the match. Jumping back just in time to activate his blades to block a shot from her rifle. She kept up her offensive start rushing in with her semblance aiming another swipe at his neck. This time he was ready for it, phasing out and letting the mass of her weapon throw her off balance. However, she didn't let her weapon control her, she took the momentum from the swing and turned into it, spinning around and aiming another strike where she thought he would appear.

Lucien let her swing through and regain her balance, taking that time to back off and collect himself. Recovering from his horrible start he phased back into reality and backed off enough to utilize his weapons ranged capabilities. Raising his arms up he cocked his hands up firing off darts up from the underside of each wrist. Ruby was surprised by this change of tactics, but she was willing to adapt and easily dodges the darts, activating Crescent Rose's sniper form. She took aim from the hip at his feet she let loose a quick barrage of rounds. Lucien was ready for a ranged counter attack and jumped into the air.

"You are good Ruby." Lucien commented.

"Thanks so are you." She responded giddily

Silence falling upon them again they began circling each other. After watching Ruby for a moment Lucien darted in close, negating the reach of her scythe, and aimed a jab at her gut. Ruby had expected something like this, her experience using such a long weapon made her aware of it's biggest draw back. Prepared for the attack she jumped back dragging Crescent Rose low to the ground hooking Lucien's ankles, trying to drag him off balance. Unprepared for such a counter Lucien threw his weight back and phased out of existence of a split second, letting himself drift through the air harmlessly. Fading back into the physical worlds a second later he stood in front of Ruby, ready for another attack.

Seeing her plan fail so spectacularly, Ruby paused for a moment to assess her options. She knew her greatest advantage was her speed and spontaneity, but whenever Lucien got into a jam he just disappeared like a ghost. She would have to move as fast as she could and even then she knew she would only have one strike at most.

While Ruby contemplated her options Lucien appraised her. He saw the obvious faults with her weapon immediately, it was only a hinderance when her opponent got to close,and she had to telegraph her swings quite a bit to get any power behind a strike. Her greatest advantage was her speed, is she could move fast enough to get past Lucien's guard and make an attack before he could disappear than she might actually be able to get a hit in.

Only a few moments had passed while the combatants evaluated the situation, but it was enough time for each of them to come up with a strategy. Both stepped forward in the same moment, aiming their weapons at the others feet and firing. Ruby reacted by side stepping with her semblance, Lucien simply faded away long enough for the shot to miss. They each continued forward, at the last second Ruby let her scythe drop behind her and used her semblance and charged Lucien, letting her scythe trail behind her, Lucien did just as she expected and phased out of her path, coming back into existence right behind her.

Suddenly both opponents stopped, each feeling a blade pressed to their skin. Lucien stood with his throat lightly pressing against the blade of Crescent Rose. Ruby could feel the tips of Feast and Famine pressed into the small of her back ready to fire off their lethal darts at any moment.

"Mutually assured destruction?" Lucien asked her, standing statue still.

"I figured that would be the only way to get to you." Ruby replied, her usually bubbly tone of voice being replaced by a deadly serious one.

"I guess that could work." He said.

"How's this going to end?" She asked.

"Like this. This match is over, with the final result being a draw." Glynda said angrily as she brought the force field that surrounded the arena down. "These duels are not supposed to be to the death. You both know that."

"Sorry Professor. Eh eheh…" Ruby replied, slightly embarrassed by the chastising tone her teacher had used.

"My apologies ma'am." Lucien replied, retracting his blades as Ruby removed her scyther from his throat. Turning to Ruby he gave a deep bow. "Thank you for the exhilarating match Ruby."

"Yeah you too." Ruby said.

"You two go change back into your uniforms." Glynda said, dismissing the two of them.

After the two had changed back they returned to their seat and watched the rest of the matches that took place. After the bell rang Lucien walked to his next class in good spirits. Such a good fight was a rare occurrence for him and it felt good to be challenged. The rest of his day was excruciatingly boring compared to his morning. Drifting through his day as usual he went to bed earlier than he normally would have, anxious to really get started with teaching Jaune.

Waking early and training with Jaune, sitting through boring lectures, the occasional challenge from a cocky student, dining with teams RWBY and JNPR, and politely avoiding Glynda became the routine of his days. A month past following that pattern, fall turning to winter. On an early winter morning something that really excited him happened. He was training with Jaune early in the morning as he usually did. The past two weeks had been spent practicing the use of aura in combat. Using it as to shield from blows and to heal quickly, but more importantly, trying to uncover what Jaune's semblance might be. Lucien was going at it a little harder than usual, trying to push the blonde boy.

Swinging at the boy rapidly, quick enough that some blows actually connected. Then Lucien would disappear and flank Jaune and let of another volley of blows, trying to aggravate and stress the boy. As this went on Jaune grew more and more annoyed with this and eventually outright furious. Jaune took a completely defensive stance, low to the ground and solid, his shield raised to just below his eye level with his sword kept close to his body in a defensive position. He waited for Lucien to reappear on his flank before throwing his shield in the way of the assassin's blades deflecting the bulk of the blows with his shield, but he still felt the sting of Lucien's blades bouncing off his aura.

Returning to his defensive stance Jaune began slowly turning in place, hoping to catch all of the blows this time. Lucien was patient though and waited for Jaune to expose his sword arm, the side he couldn't defend with his shield. When Lucien saw his opportunity he appeared and pulled his arm back to let off a series of strikes. Jaune saw the man out of the corner of his eye and before he could raise his sword to defend the first jab struck home, eliciting a cry of pain. With his eyes closed Jaune threw up his sword arm in an attempt to block another jab to his aching sides. When Lucien shot his left arm forward to strike a second time his blade was caught in the air and was thrown back, nearly wrenching his arm out of its socket.

Stopping to see what the hell had happened Lucien looked at the boy, or tried to look at the boy. What was there instead was a solid white wall the shape of Jaune's shield, easily three times as big. The shield of light was just floating in the air in front of Jaune, protecting him. Lucien began walking around Jaune, circling him, wherever Lucien stepped the shield followed.

"Jaune, we are done fighting now. You can put you shield down." Lucien said, trying to sooth the boy.

"Finally, I thought we would nev-" Jaune began before he was stunned into silence by the giant white shield that was blocking his vision. "Um… Lucien… What the hell is this?"

"You tell me. I figured since you put it there you should know what it is." Lucien replied.

"Wait I did this?" Jaune asked incredulously.

"I'm assuming you did." Lucien answered.

"Is this… Is this my semblance?" The boy asked, still unsure of what was happening.

"I'd imagine it is. Now you might want to let it go. It's just like we practiced with using your aura as a defensive tool." Lucien instructed.

"Ok give me a moment." Jaune said, letting himself relax and feel his aura slowly recede back into him. When he looked back up the shield was gone, confirming once and for all to him that it was indeed his semblance.

"Congrats kid, you found your semblance. Now you just need to figure out how to trigger it and how to control it." The older man said, a small smile on his face.

"Yeah I guess that's what we start on tomorrow?" The boy asked.

"You know what? Let's take tomorrow off, you've worked hard and deserve a day off." Lucien said, his smile growing.

"Thank you. It'll be nice to sleep in with Pyrrha for once." The boy said, before blushing at what he had just said.

"Don't do anything too exciting now. Let's go get showered and grab some grub." The man suggested, leading the way to the locker rooms. As he walked out of the arena he caught sight of a figure out of the corner of his eye. Glancing over he saw Glynda sitting in the back of the classroom watching them with a small smirk on her face.

"You go ahead Jaune, I'll catch up with you, we have plenty of time." Lucien said before he turned to head towards the back of the room. "Good morning Professor. Mind if I ask what you are doing here this early?"

"This is my classroom. A better question is why have you and Jaune been here early every day for the past month?" Glynda asked.

"He wanted help training, I agreed to, so we have been meeting here." Lucien explained, a proud smile on his face. "He's doing good. I'm sure you saw what happened down there."

"Yes, from here it looked like all it took was a bit of abuse to get him to realize his potential." Glynda said, putting emphasis on the word abuse.

"I wouldn't have actually harmed him. He'll just be a bit sore, but I think it was worth it." He said proudly.

"Yes you do seem rather proud of yourself." Glynda said with a hint of distaste.

"No, you have it wrong, I'm not proud of myself, I'm proud of Jaune. He is determined and he has come a long way because of it." Lucien explained.

"You are really enjoying teaching him?" She asked unbelievingly.

"Yes, teaching is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Didn't you know that?" He replied cheerily.

"So I've heard." She replied. "Why did you start teaching him?"

"Honestly, to piss of the little Schnee." He replied, taking a seat next to Glynda.

"You are unbelievable." She replied.

"Yeah I realize it was an asinine thing to do. I should apologize. She's almost been pleasant to me since then." He said, raising his hands behind his head.

"God, you reek of sweat. Go shower." Glynda replied with a snicker.

"Yes ma'am." He said, jumping up from his seat and walking down to the locker rooms. Walking into the locker room he replaced his gear in his locker and went to shower. Jaune had already finished and was waiting for him, sitting on one of the benches in that sat in the middle of the rows of lockers.

"Hey Lucien. I wanted to say thank you. I don't think I would have discovered my semblance so soon if you hadn't helped me." Jaune said sincerely.

"No problem kid." Lucien replied with a smile."Just don't get too comfortable tomorrow, you only get one day off.'

"Yeah, I won't" The boy replied.

"Oh one more thing. I feel like letting my wings out. Would you mind watching the door for me while I shower?"

"Uh… no problem… I guess." Jaune answered.

"Thanks, kid." Lucien said as he let his semblance fall completely. Unveiling his wings completely to the boy for the first time. He spread them out and let them stretch, gently flapping them a few times. Jaune simply stood there staring at his mentor's back, taking in the snowy wings, unable to count the number of scars that adorned his wings, lost in the beauty of them and the story of pain that they told. Jaune had seen the numerous scars that his mentor wore, having been half naked around each other numerous times in the past month, but seeing the full story now was something that scarred him, and somehow reassured him.

"Hey Lucien, I've got a question. You don't have to answer if you don't want to though." Jaune asked.

"Yes I can fly with these." Lucien replied jokingly.

"That's cool, but I was going to ask how you got all those scars." Jaune said timidly.

"All of them? I'm sure there is a story behind every single one of these scars, but the only story I know is how I got this one." Lucien said as he turned around and pointed at a small scar that sat on his collar bone.

"That's the only one?" Jaune asked, confused as to why such a small scar was the only one that had a story.

"Yeah. It was on one of my first independant hunts. When I was in school I was part of team Alabaster, ALBR. We worked well together and we were pretty good friends, but we all wanted different things from being huntsman so we split up not long after graduation." Lucien began.

"Really, you went solo?" Jaune interrupted.

"Shush kid, I'm telling my story." Lucien prelied. "Yeah I went solo, but there was this one job that was for a two man team, so I called up on of the top huntsman in my graduating class, asked her if she wanted to take the job with me. See I had kinda been friends with her since our first year, and I enjoyed working with her so she was my first choice. She agreed, so we went on this mission together, pretty simple escort job, with an elimination bounty tagged on as well." Lucien continued before being interrupted again.

"Wait. A mission with two objectives? Do they even do those?" Jaune asked.

"Not too common now, but they used to be a thing. Like, hey make sure this get's somewhere, and kill as many grimm as possible while you do it." Lucien explained, taking a seat on the bench opposite Jaune.

"Ok I get it." Jaune said, motioning for Lucien to continue.

"So my friend and I went on this mission, completed the escort and went back to take out a pack of beowulfs that had harassed us earlier. So we finish off most of the pack and tracked them back to a cave that we thought they were living in. When we get there it turns out that it was a death stalker lair. So we start fighting this deathstalker and the rest of the beowulfs show up. I decided to take on the beowulfs and leave the deathstalker to Glynda."

"WAIT! Hold the phone! Your friend was Professor Goodwitch?" Jaune asked, interrupting again.

"Yeah, didn't I say that earlier?" Lucien asked, Jaune shaking his head. "Hmm... guess not. Yeah it was Goodwitch. So I left the death stalker to her, and I took on the beowulfs. I was about halfway through the rest of the pack when Glynda shouted at me to look out. I turn around and the death stalker is taking a swing at me, he just barely hits me when I activate my semblance and his stinger passes right through thin air. We finish off the stalker and take out the beowulfs, then I start feeling a bit woozy. Turns out I had gotten a little knick on me, but it was enough to poison me. Deathstalker venom isn't something you want in you. So I pass out pretty soon and I wake up a few minutes later. Glynda isn't near me so I start looking around, and I see her over by some bushes gagging on her own vomit. Turns out she was gonna play hero and she tried to suck the venom out of me. Then she remembered the antivenom that was in the field kit I wore on my belt back then." Lucien explained, chuckling at the humor that hindsight had given the story.

"Gross." Jaune replied.

"Just wait. It gets better. So after I come to she starts berating me for being an idiot and almost dying and blaming me for her having to suck out the venom and stuff like that. Then she smacks me, like out right smacks me. I ask her what the hell all of that was about and then she just kisses me, then I get into real trouble. I start gagging cause her breath tastes like vomit." Lucien told the boy, a grin plastered on his face.

"Double gross." Jaune said, almost gagging himself.

"Yeah, so that's how I got that scar. Now I need to shower. You can go on ahead, I don't think I'll need you to watch the door." Lucien said, waving a hand to dismiss the boy.

"Yeah I'm gonna go tell Pyrrha about the big news." Jaune said as he rose to leave. "Oh, and Lucien, it's good to see you happy."

"I'm sure it is, don't tell anyone else about that ever." Lucien said, his usual cold attitude returning. "If you do training will be hell for the next four years."

"Yeah I'm sure it would be. See you at breakfast." Jaune said smiling as he departed.

 _Good to see me happy? I guess I have been in a pretty good mood lately._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Growth

Lucien arrived at the breakfast table last for once, sitting down down with his food he greeted the group, a smile lighting his face up. Almost immediately the members of teams RWBY and JNPR took notice and began exchanging glances with Jaune, the boy simply shrugged his shoulders wearing a smile of his own. Eventually the table grew silent, everyone but Jaune and Lucien wondering what was going on.

"So Jaune, you tell your lady what happened yet?" Lucien asked, finally breaking the expectant silence.

"Nah I decided to wait for you." Jaune replied, trying to sound as cryptic as possible.

"Ah cool, I get that." Lucien replied, not giving anything away.

"Yeah, figured it would be more dramatic with everyone here." The boy said. This back and forth went on for a few minutes more before Pyrrha finally spoke up, tired of being kept in the dark.

"Are you going to tell us or not?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oh nothing major. You boy just discovered his semblance. Not that big of a deal." Lucien said dismissively, the grin he wore contradicting his words.

"What?! That's huge! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" She shouted, expressing the astonishment the rest of the group felt.

"I wanted the whole group to be here. Couldn't leave anyone in the dark." Jaune answered.

"That's amazing Jaune! So what is it?" Ruby spoke up, her excited bouncing causing the table to shake.

"It's kinda lame actually. Not as impressive as any of yours." Jaune said self deprecatingly.

"Oh shut it kid, it'll be damn near undefeatable when you get good with it." Lucien said, not standing to see his student take the joy of the day away from himself.

"Can you stop messing with us and tell us already?" Pyrrha asked, growing more and more impatient, a trait not normally associated with the calm redhead.

"Jaune here can conjure what seems to be an impenetrable shield. Pretty autonomous too, it followed me around for a solid minute while he had his eyes closed." Lucien explained, the pride he felt for his student evident in his voice.

"That is pretty dang awesome Jaune. Can you show us?" Ruby asked, giddily.

"Eh I'm not really sure how to make it work just yet, it… uh… it kinda just happened?" Jaune explained.

"That's normal, and probably for the better. Using it here would let everyone know what it is. It's better to keep that kind of thing a secret for now. Showing off your strengths isn't very smart." Lucien said.

"Yes I think it's for the better." Pyrrha said. "That's why I try and keep the use of my semblance as minimal as possible."

"And you do it very well too." Lucien said, complimenting the girl.

"This is all very well and good, but how did this all come about?" Weiss inquired, dubious of Lucien's methods.

"I pushed Jaune hard, that's the best way i know to get a semblance to show." Lucien answered.

"So you attacked Jaune in hopes that you wouldn't kill him?" She said scornfully.

"No, wouldn't have gone at it that hard. Just enough to stress him out a bit. He'd already come so far with controlling his aura that I figured it wouldn't take that much more to get his semblance to show it's face." He explained. "Oh and by the way I'd like to apologize to you Weiss, I was a real ass when we met and you didn't deserve that."

"No… That's ok, it was mutual...Uh… I'm sorry too." Weiss stammered, taken aback by his apology.

"No problem." Lucien said, his good mood a welcome surprise to the rest of the group at the table.

"What's got Mr. Doom and Gloom all smiley?" Yang interjected.

"Just in a good mood I guess. I wouldn't get used to it children, soon enough I'm sure I'll be back to eating alone." Lucien said jokingly.

"Sure you will geezer." Yang quipped back.

The good mood Lucien was in followed him all through the day, his good natured smile raising more than one eyebrow. The attention that would have normally pissed him off didn't bother him at all. He just kept on gliding through his day without a care in the world. Taking his meals with JNPR and RWBY greatly enjoying the company and good natured laughter. After he had finished his classes for the day he was heading back to his dorm when he got a call on his scroll.

"Hello this is Lucien." He answered.

"Hello Lucien, this is Professor Goodwitch." The voice on the other end of the line answered.

"Well hello, what can I do for you this evening ma'am." He replied.

"I would like to speak with you, could you stop by my office." Glynda replied.

"Yes I can, I hope this isn't about anything bad?" He joked. "That might ruin the good day I've been having."

"No nothing like that. Just stop by as soon as you can." She answered seriously, quickly dispelling his good mood.

"I'll be there in in just a minute." He replied, his joking tone abandoned him as he closed the line and turned towards the wall. Ghosting through the walls of an empty dorm room and into the cool evening air he flew at record pace towards the clock tower. Phasing through the window behind Glynda's desk he stood there silently, looking at the golden haired woman, waiting for a moment to let his presence be known.

"Hello Professor." He said, finally finding his voice.

Startled, GLynda stood up from her chair and turned around to smack the man who had just scared her. Feeling her hand connect with his jaw a satisfied smirk graced her face. When she pulled her hand back she saw a large red imprint of her hand on the face of Lucien, his eyes wide with surprise.

"I told you long ago that I would smack you for your antics." She said proudly.

"Ha… Hahahaha… Yes you did!" He replied, still laughing at the pleasant memory. "I guess I thought you were bluffing back then."

"So did I." She replied with a giggle, his laughter infecting her.

"So what did you need to speak with me about?" He asked, finally reigning in his laughter.

"I wanted to talk to you about your training with Jaune. Please take a seat." She answered.

"Ok then, what did you want to know about it?" He asked, reclining into a seat across from her.

"I wanted to know why you have continued to train him. Even after the initial gratification of annoying Miss Schnee had undoubtedly worn off." She told him.

"Well that's easy. What I told you earlier was the truth. I find great joy in teaching him. It's as simple as that. It's a good distraction and entertaining to boot." He explained like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Really now? That's it?" She asked, astonished by his simple answer.

"Well it does remind me what it used to be like teaching. Those were some of my better days." He said, not realizing how vague he was actually being.

"You taught? When did you teach?" She asked, disbelieving that the man in front of her was capable of teaching.

"Yeah I taught a few kids along the way. They were just some kids who couldn't afford to attend an academy. Nothing to special, but a few of them had real potential."

"Had potential? What happened to them?" Glynda asked, fearing the answer. 

"Nothing good. I made a lot of enemies back in the early days. Trying to do good isn't always taken so well." He said. "A few of those enemies thought going after kids would be a good way of getting to me. Turns out it was just a quick way to die."

"Well… I guess that… I honestly don't have words for it." She said quietly.

"Yeah neither did I." He responded. "Now I do. Atrocious. On all sides of the ordeal. Just atrocious."

"I guess that would sum it up." She said sadly.

"But either way, I enjoy teaching, and Jaune is a good kid. I guess that's why I'm spending so much time helping him train." Lucien said, attempting to lift the mood.

"You seem to be enjoying it, that's for sure." She said with a small smile. "It's been nice seeing you happy again."

"People keep saying that. I don't think you have a very good definition of happy." He joked.

"Maybe it's your definition that's messed up?" She quipped back.

"Hmmm… Maybe it is." He conceded after some thought. "Anything else you needed to talk to me about or did you just wanna keep teasing me about my humanity?"

"As fun as that sounds, I think you should probably be heading off." She said somewhat regretfully.

"Ok then. It was nice talking to you Professor." He said as he stood and stretched.

"Use the door this time… too late." She said as she watched Lucien fade away. After a moment she said to herself quietly. "And call me Glynda."

"Whatever you want." She heard whispered in her ear, looking around she couldn't see Lucien anywhere, not that it meant anything.

Floating back through the evening air lazily, Lucien thought about his behavior lately. A part of him wanted to condemn his jovial behavior that day, but a louder voice said that he should be happy. _I don't really deserve to be happy, but I can enjoy this while it lasts can't I?_

Gliding into his room he landed in front of his wardrobe and began undressing. After he was out of his day clothes Lucien laid down and soon he was deep in a dreamless sleep. Waking early as he had grown accustomed to over the past month he busied himself with getting ready for his day. He even reviewed some of the material they had been studying in history class. Finally deeming it late enough to get breakfast he began the walk to the dining hall. As he walked down the hall he saw someone he didn't expect to.

"Well good morning Ren." Lucien greeted.

"Hello. How are you?" The quiet boy greeted.

"Pretty good. Heading down to get breakfast?" Lucien asked.

"Yeah, sometimes I just need a break from babysitting." He said jokingly.

"I understand. Sometimes you just need a break from your relationship." The older man said understandingly.

"Nora and I aren't a thing. She's like a sister to me." Ren said, falling back to his immediate response whenever someone assumed he and Nora were a couple.

"Really? Well then someone should tell her that." Lucien joked.

"What? Really?" Ren said confused and surprised by this news.

"Yeah, she is all over you half the time. It's no wonder people assume you are a couple." The older man explained.

"I guess I never noticed that." Ren said. "That's kind of a surprise."

"For you maybe. But it's blatantly obvious to the rest of the world." Lucien chided. "Just don't wait too long."

"What are you talking about?" Ren asked, a slight blush rising to his face.

"Oh… Well I'm sure you'll figure it out. You are a smart kid." Lucien said, as cryptic as he could possibly be in this situation.

Ren just kept walking in befuddled silence, leading the way to the dining hall. Soon enough they had their food and were eating in a comfortable silence. After they had finished they cleaned their trays and returned back to their seats, taking the opportunity to study in relative peace while waiting for their friends. Soon enough the others had arrived and put an end to the peace and quiet.

"Hey Nora, could we talk for a minute?" Ren said during a lull in the conversation.

"Uh… Sure!" The hyperactive girl answered.

"Uh… maybe we could go somewhere less loud?" He asked, standing to lead the way out of the dining hall.

"Ok. lead the way." Nora said as she stood to follow.

A curious silence spread over the table, Jaune being the first to break it.

"Anyone know what that is about?" The blonde boy asked.

"Just wait… In three… two…" Lucien said only to be cut off by a piercing scream coming from outside the hall, followed by exclamations of joy.

"There we go." Lucien finished. "You may want to find a safe place to gag. It's gonna get sickeningly cute in here."

"What are you talking about?" Yang asked, earning nods of agreement from the rest of those seated around the table.

"You all will see soon enough." He replied.

Moments later the partners walked back into the dining hall holding hands and smiling wider than anyone had ever seen them smile before, and for Nora that was quite the achievement. Walking back over to the table and sitting back down, this time next to each other instead of across the table. Not long after they sat back down looks of understanding started to appear on the faces of their friends. Soon enough questions were being flung at the new couple left and right. With a smile Lucien excused himself from the table and left for class and his ritual nap.

As Lucien left the dining hall he got a call. Opening up his scroll he saw that the call was from Ozpin. Contemplating ignoring the call for a moment, he decided that it must be important.

"Hello." He answered.

"Lucien, come to my office immediately we need to talk." Ozpin said in a grievous tone.

"I'll be there in a moment." Lucien respond seriously, hanging up and instantly fading away, taking flight to the top of the clock tower. As soon as he was in the office he brought himself back into reality and landed with a quiet thud.

"What is the problem?" Lucien asked, straight to the point.

"It seems we have a situation that concerns you." Ozpin began. "Early this morning while most of the staff and students were asleep a small team infiltrated the school grounds and abducted a member of our faculty. It seems like they were after someone specific and I believe they are enemies of yours."

"What makes you think that?" Lucien asked.

"They left a message for you. And they took someone they believed could be used as leverage against you." Ozpin answered clinically.

"Who was taken and what did the message say?" Lucien said, fearing the answer.

"They seemed to have taken Glynda while she was sleeping. I normally wouldn't be worried about her, she can deal with criminals easily, but we found an empty syringe in her room, we believe they drugged her." Ozpin told him.

"What did the god damned message say?" Lucien growled.

"It said that you have two days to show yourself or they would do unspeakable things to her, and then they would find another person close to you and do the same. The message was signed by the leader of the Crimson Brotherhood. One of the larger criminal outfits that operates out of Vale." Ozpin replied.

"Yeah I know who those scum are. I wiped them out once or twice. They always seem to grow another head." Lucien said, seething with anger.

"What are you going to do about this?" Ozpin asked, already knowing the answer.

"I'm going to cut off their head once and for all. You can do what you want after that, but I think it's time to pull Wrath and Vengeance out of the closet." Lucien replied determined to right this wrong.

"We shall see about the consequences after you return. I expect that you will return my staff member to me in one piece. And remember, I didn't need to tell you this." Ozpin stated.

"Then thank you, but I have work to do." The assassin replied as he began to fade away.

 _I knew that I would be Morningstar again before too long._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Bloody Fall

Lucien ghosted into his room and immediately went for the bottom draw of his wardrobe where he kept the few personal item he had brought to the school. Sifting through the drawer he found a key to a storage unit located in the industrial complex of Vale. Opening the window to his room he crouched on the sill and after taking a deep breath launched himself over the edge, free falling from the second story window before letting his wings unfurl and catch the cool autumn air. Flying as fast as he could he made it into the city in under an hour. Dropping down to the empty streets of the wharf district he made his way to the building that had all of his earthly belonging stored inside.

Opening the unit he walked to the back wall where a bench sat. On top of the bench was a small terry cloth tarp. Lifting the tarp up he revealed a set of dueling swords, the blades were long and thin, designed for thrusting as well as cutting, with simple bronze crossguards and pommels, the only adornment being the carved ivory handles. The carvings on the handles read _Wrath_ and _Vengeance_ , the name Lucien had given the blades. Taking off Feast and Famine and setting them down on the bench he picked up the blades, feeling their familiar weight, the way the grips fit perfectly in his hands. Giving the blades and experimental twirl he found himself satisfied with the feel of them. Taking their scabbards off of a nearby shelf and strapping them onto his waist he placed the blades in their homes on his hips.

During all of this his only thoughts were of revenge on the criminals who had disrupted his new life, one he was just beginning to enjoy. Closing the door to the storage unit he made his way towards the seedier side of Vale, knowing where he would be able to find the Crimson Brotherhood's base of operations. It was an hour's walk before he was in the right neighborhood, heading towards one of the many dive bars that could be found there. Walking into one creatively name _The Spigot_ , he looked around the hazy room for a moment before he spotted the man he was looking for.

"Jonah! It's been a long time you fat ass!" Lucien called out to the owner of the establishment.

"Hey it's my favorite jackass, I mean customer!" Jonah called back. Jonah was a short man, skinny with greasy white hair that was always falling into his face. More importantly he was a damn good information broker.

"You know the drill. I got some questions, you got some answers." Lucien said quieter as he walked over to Jonah.

"Yeap and then you go off and kill someone and I count my money." He replied with a chuckle.

"Yeah let's hope that's not how this one goes. Except for the money of course." Lucien said gravely. "I need the location of the Crimson Brotherhood. It's time I end them for good."

"Easy, they are holed up in an old warehouse on the waterfront, just like every other gang in Vale." Jonah answered. "Here I'll write down the address for you. Those guys have been a pain in my ass for the last six months, trying to shake me down."

"Thank you Jonah, the funds will be in you account tomorrow evening." Lucien said as he took the paper from the older man. "I'll handle it from here."

"Hey Lucy. It's nice seeing you again. I heard you tried getting out of the business. That true?" Jonah asked.

"Yeah I'm still trying to retire. How about you? Last I heard you were gonna close up here and go live on a beach somewhere." Lucien replied.

"I still plan on doing that. Fact is I've almost entirely gotten out of the info business. Nowadays the bar is pretty much all I'm doing." Jonah said.

"That's good. Hopefully I'll see you again soon." Lucien said as he walked out.

After the short reunion with one of the few people Lucien considered a friend he was even more enraged. _Those bastards have been harassing Jonah. What kind of scum would shake down an old info broker?_ He thought as he marched determinedly towards the address Jonah had given him. Soon enough he was standing in front of a derelict warehouse wht two thugs standing out front.

"I'm here to see you boss." Lucien shouted at the two, startling them out of their boredom.

"Are you Morningstar?" The larger of the two asked.

"Who do you think he is?" The smaller one asked.

"Yeah I'm Morningstar. Now just take me to your boss. You have something of mine and I would rather not kill every single one of you to get it back." Lucien said as threateningly as he could.

"Whatever tough guy, come on." The big guy said, motioning for Lucien to walk in front of them as he opened the door.

Taking the lead Lucien walked into the warehouse, taking in a dusty and disorganized mess of crates. The thugs guided Lucien past over a dozen men standing going about their business to the back of the building where a wall of doors stood. Lucien was led into a small room with dim lights, but his faunus eyes could pick out the details of a woman, tied and gagged resting on the floor. Walking over to her he saw that it was who he was looking for, but Glynda looked as if she had been beaten. The sight of her lying there unconscious made Lucien fly into a rage turning around to leave the room he was shoved back in just before the door was bolted shut from the outside.

"Ha...HA...HAHAHAHA YOU THINK A DOOR WILL SAVE YOU?" He shouted, charging the door he ran right through it, drawing his blades he let loose his wings creating a horrifying visage of an angel of death.

"DO YOU FOOLS REALLY KNOW WHO I AM?" He screamed in a rage fueled insanity. "I AM THE MORNINGSTAR! ANGEL OF DEATH!"

The sight of the crazed faunus had the two who escorted him there shaking in terror, cowering back from him. Walking towards the two men he thrust his blades through their chest and began walking towards the now armed men who had amassed around him. Behind the group of men he saw one who was better dressed than the rest, shouting commands at the men.

"You will die today." Lucien threatened, pointing his blade at the well dressed man.

"You fucking lunatic! Who the fuck do you think you are? Coming here and killing my men?" The leader shouted back.

"You really don't know who I am do you? HA" Lucien asked.

"You are some punk who has troubled this organization for too long. That's who you are." The ring leader shouted.

"You have it backwards my friend. Your petty little club has been a pain in my ass for far too long. Now I'm going to end you all for good." Lucien said with quiet rage.

"Shut the fuck up! Men kill him!" The leader said, pointing his gun at Lucien and firing. A wicked smile appeared on his face as he watched him men fire into the intruder. The smoke and dust obscuring his vision of the chaos.

"You really ought to take the time to learn about you enemies." Lucien whispered into the man's ear as he pressed the edge of his blade to the man's throat.

"What the fu-" The man said, only to be cut off by the blade against his throat. Kicking the man's lifeless body away Lucien turned to the men who had now realized their mistake.

"You can all leave. Or you can all die. But if I ever hear the name Crimson Brotherhood again. I will shove your kidneys so far up your throat you will taste urine for the rest of your very short life." Lucien warned.

The men cowered for a moment before one of them spoke up, commanding them to stand their ground and kill the intruder. The men taking heart in their numbers began firing at a ghost, only to be cut down one by one from behind. Soon the room had turned to pure chaos, Lucien ghosting from one man to another, leaving a growing trail of bodies to mark the path he took. In a matter of minutes all that was left of the gang was a pile of bodies.

"FUCK!" Lucien shouted when he saw the damage he had wreaked. Walking back to the door he had passed through minutes prior, he unbolted it and walked over to the still unconscious form of Glynda. Lifting her into his arms he walked out of the building and launched into the air flying for Beacon as fast as he could. Minutes after he had taken off Glynda began to stir in his arms.

"Lucien? What happened?" She whispered, her voice barely reaching him through the wind.

"Shh, rest now Angel, you are safe." _In the arms of a monster._ He responded, keeping the latter half to himself.

"Ok… Thank you." She whispered, curling into his arms, feeling safer than she had in a very long time. Her last thought before she sank back into unconsciousness were of the home she once had with Lucien, hoping to be back there when she awoke.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Dark Horizon

Glynda awoke in a familiar surrounding, but from an unfamiliar angle. Looking around she found herself in the infirmary at Beacon. She tried to sit up but found her sides too sore to move. Glancing around she saw that she was alone. Trying to speak she found that her voice was a bit rough, but thankfully still there.

"Hello, is anyone here?" She called out roughly. She heard the rustling of papers and the scraping of chair legs on linoleum, before a nurse came walking over.

"Hello there Professor, it's good to see you are awake." The nurse said. "I'm sure the headmaster will want to speak with you. He told me to call him when you woke up."

"I'm sure he did. Could you help me sit up?" Glynda asked. "Oh and some water would be appreciated."

"Of course." The nurse assisted her with sitting up, making sure she didn't fall from the sudden rush of blood from her head. Then the nurse disappeared to call Ozpin and get the requested water. Coming back a minute later the nurse gave her the water and went back to her desk on the other side of the ward. A few silent minutes went by while Glynda drank the water down and waited for Ozpin to show, when he did he entered quietly and took a seat by Glynda's bedside.

"Good afternoon Glynda. I hope you are feeling well after some much needed rest." He greeted.

"Yes I feel much better after that… ordeal." She responded, remembering the horrible day she had endured.

"Yes I'm sure you do. The doctor said that you hadn't sustained any major injury just some lacerations and fractured ribs, your aura should take care of the rest in a few days." Ozpin said.

"Tell me Ozpin. How did you manage to get me out of there? They had me drugged so I don't really remember what happened." She asked.

"Well to really know what happened you would need to ask Lucien. But as for what I know, Lucien tracked down the criminal organization that had abducted you and wiped them off the face of Remnant." Ozpin explained.

"What do you mean I would have to ask him? Didn't he tell you what happened?" Glynda asked, her voice rising slightly.

"No, all I know about the ordeal is what I have been able to find out for myself. Two days ago you were dropped off here and Lucien left. The nurse said he was covered in blood but seemed to be unharmed. The news painted the incident as a gang war." Ozpin stated clinically.

"He left? Just got up and left?" She thought aloud. "Why would he just leave?"

"You would have to ask him that." Ozpin restated.

"Ozpin, I need a bit of time off. Could you find someone to fill in for me for a few days?" She asked. "It would mean a great deal to me."

"Of course. But I must warn you, if you are going after Lucien it will not be easy and he may not wish to see you. I wouldn't want you provoking his temper." Ozpin warned.

"I can handle him. Don't worry." She reassured. "I'll be leaving tomorrow then."

"I'll trust you to find him then. Until tomorrow rest up." Ozpin said as he stood to leave. "Oh and you may want to start at a small bar in the wharf district called _The Spigot._ The owner there is a mutual friend of Lucien and I, though I doubt Lucien knows that."

"Thank you Oz. This means a lot to me." She said as the headmaster left.

"Of course Glynda. Rest up." He said as he walked away.

 _That ass. I am going to kick his ass into the next century for just leaving me without a single word._ Glynda fumed for a short while until she exhausted her reserves and fell back into a fitful sleep. Dreaming of flying and falling, of a bloody screams, and the warmth of familiar arms cradling her. Waking the next afternoon to the sound of birds heading south outside the window she found herself able to sit up and move on her own. After changing into fresh clothes that she had brought to her she checked herself out of the infirmary and gathered her equipment. She armed herself with her crop and a set of darts she hadn't used in years. The darts were designed to be used with her telekinesis, with long thin shafts terminating in razor sharp broad points.

Properly equipped she made her way to the airship field that connected Beacon to the rest of the world. Finding a pilot she made her way to downtown Vale, from there she went straight to the storage garage where she kept her fastest mode of transit. Inside the garage was a small two seater sports car that she had bought herself after her first few missions as a fully fledged huntress. She loved the thrill of driving something so fast and small, but today she wasn't going for a pleasure drive. Getting into the small car she fired it up and pulled out of the garage onto the street. During the short trip to the wharf district she thought of what she might say to Lucien when she found him, of how he might react to being found. With every possible scenario she ran through she asked herself why she wanted to find him so badly. Since coming back to Beacon he had been little but a thorn in her side.

 _If he has been such a nuisance then why do I need to find him?_

 _Well duh you blonde, you loved him at one time._ A little voice in the back of her mind reminded her.

 _And now I'm going insane, fucking great._

Speeding down the roads of Vale she made good time to _The Spigot_. When she got there she was slightly disgusted to see a grungy dive bar. Heading inside she was greeted by a few silent nods from the small smattering of patrons that sat nursing drinks. Walking through the hazy room towards the bar she motioned for the bartender.

"Hello there miss. I'm Jonah, owner of this shithole. What can I get for you?" Jonah greeted.

"Hello, I'm a friend of Ozpin's. He said you might be able to help me with something." She explained.

"Ah, I haven't heard from Ozpin in a while. I'd ask how he's doing but you look like you are in a hurry." Jonah said. "Tell me what you need and I'll see what I can do for you, free of charge just cause Ozpin sent ya."

"You're an info broker? Is that it?" She asked, surprised that Ozpin would make a deal with this greasy man.

"Eh, I'm tryin' to retire, but yeah I can help you get some info if you need it." Jonah replied.

"Good, I'm looking for a man named Lucien. I was told he was a customer of yours." She said.

"Ah, you're looking for my favorite winged freak Lucy." Jonah said with a small smile. "Yeah he's an old friend of mine."

"You know about his wings?" She said astounded.

"Oh yeah all the regulars here know about 'em too. This is a faunus friendly place." He said, pointing to a sign above his head that read _BIGOTS GET SHOT_.

"I see. I need to know his whereabouts. We have some things to discuss." She explained.

"Oh you're that lady he went off after the other night." Jonah said, realizing who she was. "Lucy came to me three nights back wanting to know where to find a gang that had been pissin' him off. I told him where to find them, but he didn't say why he needed to find 'em so I did some digging and it turned out that they had abducted some woman the day before. Not really these guys style so I stuck two and two together and figured they were tryin' to bait Lucy. Last I heard they got wiped out that same night."

"Yeah I already knew about that." She said, getting annoyed at the man's ramblings. "I just need to know where Lucien is now."

"Well I don't know his exact location. He stopped in to drink for a bit and after i got a few in him he told me he was going to lay low for a few days before he went back to working. My best guess is he would be going got his _safe house_ , if you can call a garage off the docks a house." Jonah rambled.

"Do you know where his safe house is?" Glynda asked, grasping at the slight glimmer of hope.

"One of two that do. Here, since you seem dead set on finding your knight in shining I'll give you the address. Just make sure you knock and say who you are the moment you get there or I'll be helping clean up your body." Jonah warned as he wrote down the address on a greasy paper napkin.

"Thank you Jonah. I'm sure I'll be back to thank you properly soon." Glynda said as she got up from her seat.

"Like I said, that's on the house." Jonah said as he went off to serve a customer who had just walked in.

Leaving the hazy bar Glynda got back into her car and sped off towards the address. Arriving at a complex of storage units she got out of her car and walked down the isles till she found the number she was looking for. She knocked on the man door and called out to whoever might be inside. A few moments later some rustling could be heard as well as the hiss of a steel on leather. Suddenly the door was flung open revealing a shirtless Lucien, blade held out in front of him, pointed right at Glynda's heart.

"What are you doing here? You should be resting." Lucien said accusingly.

"What are you doing here? You should be studying." Glynda replied in kind.

"Students study. I nap." He stated.

"Last time I checked you were a student." She quipped, smacking the blade away from her chest.

"Not today. Today I am an assassin." He shot back.

"No today you are a coward who ran away again!" Glynda shot back.

"And you must be insane! You one day you are being drugged and beaten and the next you are out chasing down a dangerous criminal!" He shouted back.

"Dangerous criminal my ass. You you don't have the balls to even try and hurt me." She said dismissively.

"Really now?!" He shouted, pointing the his blade back at her just to have it beaten away again.

"If you think you can do it then try." She challenged.

Lucien pointed the blade at her a third time, drawing his arm back ready to strike. Then he hesitated, gathering his will, then he struck out. The blow sliced through cloth and barely grazed flesh, but no blood was drawn. Glynda watched his hand start to shake, the resolve he had gathered leaving him in an instant. Suddenly the blade clattered to the hard ground and the sight of Lucien's angry facade crumbling nearly brought tears to her eyes.

"You ass. You cut my shirt… You fucking ass…" Glynda said, her voice steady, but her eyes gave away her feelings of fear and betrayal.

"You damnable woman… What the hell happened to me?" He pleaded.

"You found some humanity?" She replied with as much shaky sarcasm she could muster.

"Huh… That would do it." He muttered to himself, before bending down and picking up his blade with shaking hands. "Well come on in. It would be rude to make a lady stand outside."

"Thank you." Glynda replied awkwardly.

Following Lucien into the garage Glynda got a good look at the small space. It was fairly bare, in the center of the room sat a small table with two chairs, in the back corner sat a small cot, a tiny kitchenette across from the cot, with the rest of the space being dominated by walls of tools and neatly organized benches. Lucien guided her to the table and took a seat motioning for her to do the same.

"So are you going to tell me why you came after me?" Lucien asked her. "And better yet how did you find me?"

"Jonah told me where to find you, and I came after you to ask some questions." Glynda stated.

"Of course it was Jonah. That rat bastard always cared too much about his clients." Lucien said begrudgingly. "And I thought we were done with the questions?"

"We were done, then you gave me reason to ask more." Glynda clarified.

"Then ask your questions and leave."

"Why did you just leave the school after you rescued me?" She demanded.

"Well I lost count but according to the news I killed thirty people." He said morosely. "I don't think that would be good for the school's reputation."

"No it wouldn't be good for the school's reputation if a student killed thirty people, but a student didn't kill thirty people. It was a gang war gone horribly wrong."

"Yeah that's what they keep saying, but the police are smarter than that. They know what it look's like when I roll into town."

"And they also know that you eliminated a gang of murderers and drug pushers. And they know that they can't catch you." She stated. "I've read your file, it pretty much screams 'give up if you see this man'. They don't even have a photo of you"

"How did you get your hands on my file?" Lucien asked, somewhat offended at the intrusion.

"I'm a well respected huntress. I just had to ask."

"Of course. But that doesn't matter. I broke Ozpin's rules and I'm pretty sure he would have had you all try and kill me."

"I think after the favor you did him, he would have let this slide." She said.

" _Let this slide?_ " He asked incredulously. "Did you really just say that so casually? Thirty people and he would have _let this slide_?"

"Thirty murders and drug pushers." Glynda stated. "Thirty men who had committed crimes for no other reason than lien."

"Do you even realize how hypocritical it would be for me to respond to that?" He said viciously. "You are talking to a man who has committed far worse than they ever had done for nothing more than lien."

"The difference is you tried to change." She declared fervently.

"Tried is a good word for it. In the end it seems that was a failed endeavour." He pointed out sarcastically.

"Was it really a failure?"

"Yeah I could have gotten you out of there without a drop of blood, but when I saw you there drugged and beaten I just lost it. Then they tried to lock me in there with you, and when that pompous ass in a suit told his men to fire… There was no turning back after that." He explained morosely.

"If you were just going to run off again, then why did you save me?" She demanded.

"They pissed me off. They took you to get to me and it worked." He said.

"Is that why they abducted me? The drugs made it hard to figure that out." Glynda asked softly.

"Yeah they figured taking someone important to me would be a good way to bait me into a trap." He explained with a laugh. "I guess it worked."

"I was the best leverage they had?" Glynda asked, the importance of his statement not lost on her.

"Yeah when I think about it, it had to be you or one of the kids, probably Jaune. But I don't think Jaune would have been as comfortable to fly back with." Lucien said, averting his eyes.

"That's the word you choose? Comfortable?"

"That's what you decide to take from that sentence?" He chided back.

"I'm going to ignore your sad attempt at flirting." She said with a giggle.

"Who said I was flirting?" He asked, taken aback at her sudden humor. "I was serious! He's all muscle and bone!"

"Oh like you are one to talk?! Sleeping next to you is like laying next to an ice pack!" She managed to get out between giggles.

"Oh really now?! And you think sharing a bed with you is any better? You kick! Why do you think I always wake up before you?" He shot back between fits of laughing.

"Woke up, you ass." She corrected. Her laughter fading.

"Yeah… Woke up…" He said, the mood suddenly shifting somberly. An uncomfortable silence falling over the pair. Moments passed before glynda finally spoke.

"Lucien, please come back to Beacon. I think you should at least continue training Jaune." She pleaded.

"I think I've done enough for the kid." Lucien replied wistfully. "He can more than handle himself now."

"But what about the good it's done you?"

"It was fun, but I think it's time I stopped living in a nostalgia trip." He explained.

"Then stop living in it. Make it your reality." She continued to plead "You really helped him, not just him, you helped his entire team, they have a strong leader now."

"Yes they have a strong leader now. That's exactly why they don't need me back at the school."

"What about how he would feel knowing his mentor just gave up and left because he made a mistake. How do you think that would affect him." _How do you think that would affect me?_

"He doesn't need me as a role model. I've seen how that one goes." Lucien answered, dredging up bad memories.

"Just think about it okay?" She nearly begged.

"Okay… I'll think about it." He conceded. "But I think it's time you head back."

"You are probably right." She agreed, rising from her chair.

"I would say 'I'll see you out' but it's kind of impossible not to." He joked, following her to the door. Just as she exited the door she turned back and brought him into a hug that lasted much longer than it should have.

"Thank you Lucien, for saving me. I didn't get to thank you properly in my drugged up state." She whispered into his shirt where a small damp spot was forming.

"I would do it again in a heartbeat Angel." He whispered, suddenly freezing, realizing his mistake he closed his eyes preparing for a sharp slap to the face. What he got instead was a sensation that he had forgotten how much he missed.

 _What the hell am I doing?_ She screamed at herself.

 _Kissing the man you love, you idiot._ Her inner voice responded.

 _Don't ruin this for me!_ She shouted back at herself. _I really must be going crazy..._


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Thanks once again for all the follows. This chapter contains the first time I have ever tried to write an adult scene and it is probably not the greatest. If you want to skip if for any reason scroll down till you see the bold text. Thanks again, enjoy.**

Chapter 11

Beautiful Mistake

Leaning into the kiss Glynda shoved them back into the small room, kicking the door closed as they went. Stumbling back to the table Lucien picked her up and spun her arounds to sit on the table, not breaking the embrace for more than a second. Pushing her down onto the table he leaned over her brushing her bangs out of her face, placing a gentle kiss on her lips.

"What are we doing?" He whispered in her ear.

"Don't ruin this for me." She whispered back.

"Yes ma'am."

Resuming his ministrations, nipping at her lip he elicited a small moan. Not one to be bested Glynda slid her hands up his shirt and dragged her nails down Lucien's back, forcing a groan of pleasure to escape. Pulling her hands to his chest she reach up from inside his shirt to grip his collar and rip his t-shirt down the front, exposing his scarred chest. When she saw the numerous scars she paused for a moment taking in the pain that he had endured. Then she bent down and began placing small kisses on each one as she worked her way up his chest to the hollow of his neck where she placed one final kiss before gently sucking on his cool skin. While she was occupied with his scars Lucien pulled the pins that kept her hair in place, letting it cascade over the table. After she had suckled on his neck for a moment Glynda pushed him up and lead them over the the small bed. Shoving him down onto the cot she straddled his waist, slowly unbuttoning her blouse and removing her plain bra, revealing her fair chest.

"Damn, the years really treated me like shit compared to you." Lucien said somehow sounding mature despite his joking.

"That's what happens when you aren't going out trying to get yourself killed every night." She whispered back, leaning down to kiss him again. The feeling of his rough skin against her breasts brought a shiver of pleasure to her. Slowly rocking her hips against his she could feel his hard member pressing against her core. Seeing the look of pleasure on her face Lucien slowly began bucking his hips in time with her rubbing. Bringing her back down for another passionate kiss he wrapped his arms around her, enjoying the feeling of holding her again.

"Are you gonna take off those pants or am I going to have to rip them off too?" Glynda said airily.

"Be my guest." Lucien replied.

Glynda slowly snaked her way down his chest, placing kisses as she went, till she reached his belt line. Unbuckling the annoying accessory and undid the fly of his jeans before she gripped the hem and slid them down past his hips, placing kisses on every scar she saw. When he was finally relieved of his pants she began to undo her skirt before she was stopped by Lucien's hands on her own.

"Let me get that for you." He said flipping the two of them over. He gently pulled down the zipper that kept the slip of fabric in place. He quietly began placing kisses up the inside of her thighs till he reached small bit of cloth that protected her womanhood. He quickly removed the last barrier to his goal and he began lapping gently at her core, feeling her hips are into his touch. He slowly slid a finger inside of her and began gently thrusting, hearing her moan he thrust faster, bringing more moans to her lips. He continued massaging her center while teasing her bud with his tongue until he felt her tense one final time before she called out to him. Feeling her relax he brought himself up to her level, kissing her deeply, enjoying the slight flush of her face.

"I hope you aren't done yet." She gasped out between breaths.

"I was more concerned that you were." He joked.

"Oh you ass. You are getting it now." She replied as she rolled them over once again. Sliding his boxers, letting him kick them off from his ankles she slowly slid back up, letting the stiff peeks of her breasts trial along his skin. When she had finally reached his face she placed a quick kiss on his lips before sitting up again, straddling his waist, his hard member pressed against her slick core. Rocking her hips once again she felt him stiffen beneath her, his eyes begging for entrance. She continued her teasing for a while longer, warming herself up for another round. When she felt a moan about to escape her lips she lifted herself up and slid back down, feeling the the entire length of his stiff member inside her. Slowly she began bouncing, the small cot rocking underneath the couple.

Picking up her pace she felt Lucien bringing her down to meet his lips. Lucien began to massage her firm breasts paying close attention to her hard nipples, drawing out loud moans of pleasure. Slowly he felt the pressure build, straining to be released. When he felt the pressure build to an intolerable level he flipped them over, wresting control from her completely. Thrusting quickly he felt her tighten around him, driving him over the edge. Thrusting as hard as he knew she could bare he let out a loud moan as she called out to him again, feeling the pressure release as she tightened one last time.

Relaxing on top of her before rolling off onto his side and pulling her into his arms. Resting his head on the cot her felt her melt into him in a long forgotten pose. Breathing in the scent of her hair he found himself being lulled to sleep by her gentle breathing. Soon Glynda followed him into oblivion and they spent the night like that.

 **BOLD TEXT** (If anyone would like to suggest a less intrusive way of warning people that would be appreciated. Also this was my first time attempting to write a lemon so sorry if it was utter crap)

When the next day began to dawn GLynda woke up in an unfamiliar place. Startled she tried to get up only to find herself pinned to the bed she was on by a pair of familiar arms. Craning her neck to see if it was really who she thought it was. Once her suspicion was confirmed she thought back to the previous night.

 _Oh god… That really happened didn't it?_ She questioned herself before glancing down to see her nude body greeting he proved that her memory of the previous night was accurate.

"Good morning." Lucien said, startling her further. "I suppose this is where we regret our life choices and agree to never speak of this?"

"Yeah I think that's about right." She murmured.

"Well then. I suppose you need to get going." He said as he removed his arms from around her.

"Yeah I suppose I do." She said as she rose from the bed and began collecting her clothes. Lucien rose and began dressing as well, forgoing the ripped shirt. WIthout the shirt he let his wings unfurl in the dim light of the small garage. As the two silently cleaned up the evidence of their mistake they both contemplated their next move.

"Listen Glynda… I'm sorry. That shouldn't have happened. I overstepped by a mile." Lucien attempted.

"I told you not to call me that." She said with warm smile. "And I remember being the one who started it all. There isn't a need to apologize. We can be adult about this."

"Yeah I suppose we can." He said, returning the small smile.

"Will you still think about returning to the school?" She asked quietly.

"Yes, I'll think about it." He answered quietly.

Another silence fell over them as they realized that they were both dressed and there was nothing more to do in the dim garage. As Glynda began walking to the dor Lucien followed, standing in the doorway as he watched her depart for her car. Just as she got to the vehicle she turned around and walked back to him, a determined look on her face.

"Listen. Don't say a fucking word till I finish." She commanded. "You've been giving me bullshit answers all semester. Even worse than that when you tell me the truth you just pussy out and deny that you could ever change. I _sincerely_ believe that is a load of crap. I've seen you change, the way you helped Jaune, the smile on your face when the kids are being idiots, hell you've even stopped napping in class. I think you can change and you are changing. So if there is even the slightest chance you are changing back into the man I once knew, or even into a better man, I want to get to know him. So even if you don't come back to Beacon, don't think you can just disappear again."

"Ok." Was all he said.

"Ok? That's it?"

"Pretty much." He replied. "I don't have any reason not to now. I have almost no contacts anymore, so few enemies that I doubt I will have to go about wreaking vengeance again. Hell I had Jonah spread a rumor that Morningstar had died. So there is no reason I don't have to stay in touch."

"Ok then." She replied, turning and walking a few paces away before turning around and giving him a quick, but passionate, kiss. "Goodbye, I hope to see you soon."

"Uh… Yeah. You too." Was all he managed before she was in her car again, driving away. "Well shit… What do I do now?"

Walking back into his garage he inspected the damage from the previous night. Seeing that the only thing out of place was a chair that had been knocked over in the activities he righted it and sat down to plan his next step. He sat alone for almost an hour before he decided that his next move would be to swing by Jonah's and shower in the apartment above the bar. Leaving his small garage home he locked the door and took off towards _The Spigot_. When he landed in the street he saw that Jonah had yet to open it to the early crowd so he walked right through the front door and called out to Jonah.

"Hey Jonah! I need to use your bathroom!" He shouted, waiting for a reply before heading upstairs.

"Yeah go ahead man. I'll be down here if you need anything!" The greasy man called back from somewhere in the back of the bar.

Heading up to the second floor apartment he made his way to the bathroom where he showered quickly before dressing in the clothes he wore when he arrived, still missing a shirt. When he walked back down to the bar he saw that Jonah had finally opened it up to the "early risers". Taking his normal seat at the bar he hailed over Jonah and ordered a coffee. When Jonah brought it back he finally inquired about Lucien's lack of a shirt.

"You know I have a sign that says "No shirt, no shoes." Right?" Jonah asked.

"Yah, I also know it finishes with "no shits given." Lucien snarked back. "Jonah don't you think that if I had a shirt to wear I would be wearing it?"

"Probably. But I thought I'd give you a little grief. So why the lack of shirt? Get ruined in a scrap with that lady who came in yesterday? She seemed pretty pissed." The bartender asked.

"Something like that… Let's just say that it didn't go as expected." He said, a small blush forming on his face.

"Ah so you slept with her." Jonah said knowingly. "Yeah that explains the smell earlier."

"Shut up you greasy shit." Lucien joked. "Yeah, never would have thought that would happen again."

"Again?" The bartender asked. "Was she that pretty girl you used to talk about?"

"Yeah, I guess girl isn't the right word anymore."

"Hell no it's not. And neither is pretty. Why the hell would you walk out on that?" Jonah questioned.

"We've been over this Jonah… Can we not drudge up my past right now?"

"Sorry not trying to ruffle your feathers." He said with smirk.

"Really bird jokes?" Lucien chastised.

"Hey man it's not everyday we get to see those things. Got take what we can get." Jonah said motioning to Lucien's still exposed wings. "Speaking of which. Why they out?"

"Don't feel like hiding them right now." He replied simply.

"Fair enough. Still a little scrambled up in the head? Hehehe." Jonah mocked.

"Shut it and get me more coffee." Lucien said waving him off.

"Ok, but when I get back you are telling me why you are here and not up at that school down on your knees begging." Jonah threatened as he went to get the coffee pot.

 _Good question._ Lucien thought to himself during his moment of silence.

"Cancel the coffee Jonah. I have to get to class." He shouted as he ran out the door of the bar and into the street. Taking off he rocketed towards the school, flying as fast as his wings could carry him. Soon enough he was back in his dorm room. Changing at record pace he rushed to gather his things and leave for class. Checking the time he saw that it was still the first half of second hour.

 _Perfect. I'll just apologize for being late and say that something came up and if I play my cards right there shouldn't be a scene._ He thought as he ran through the halls of the dorm and out into the morning air. Deciding that running wasn't fast enough he stripped out of his shirt and jacket again and took flight through the school grounds, frightening some of the faculty and students who weren't in class. When he got to the lecture hall he simply passed right through the walls and went straight to Glynda's classroom. Floating as a ghost above the students he spotted an empty seat in the front row of the class. Rematerializing above them he let himself gently descend to the floor. Hiding his wings and buttoning his shirt back on before taking a seat, he felt every pair of eyes in the room on him.

"My apologies for the grandiose entrance Professor. Somethings came up and I was detained for a while." He explained, looking Glynda right in the eyes. "Please continue."

"Lucien! What the hell are you doing here?! I thought you would be in Atlas by now." She nearly shouted at him.

"Nah, the government there is pretty good, they don't need an accountant." He said, turning to look at Weiss, giving her a slight wink. To which she gave a small smile in return. "So like I said, please continue with class."

"Very well. As I said, we will continue to practice with our semblances today. Pair up and begin the exercises that we have been doing for the last week." She said, trying to regain control of the class. Eventually the class began to follow her instructions pairing up and spreading out to use their semblances, all the while whispering about Lucien and his exchange with Glynda. Lucien as always was alone in this endeavor, but halfway through the practice time he was called over by his favorite first years.

"What did you need boys and girls?" He said as he walked over to them.

"Well Weiss wanted to talk to you about something and I wanted to see you do the ghost thing again!" Ruby explained giddily.

"Oh really?" He asked. "You just wanted to see the "ghost thing" again?"

"I'm sorry about her." Weiss apologized. "She can be kind of…"

"Hyperactive? Childish? Erratic?" He offered.

"Yeah…" The white haired girl responded with a small smile.

"Well Miss Rose. I think you wish can be granted." He said to her cordially as he began to fade his body away slowly.

"Wow that is soooo cool!" Ruby squealed

"Yeah I guess it is." He replied as he came back into view. "Now Miss Schnee. I believe you wanted to speak with me?"

"Yeah I wanted to say thank you. I called my mom the other night and had a big fight. She explained how you two knew each other. I may not have known you then but I'm glad you didn't take the job." Weiss said sincerely.

"So am I." He said with a chuckle. "It would have been dreadfully boring.

"Wow… Thanks." She replied sarcastically, eliciting a chuckle from the older man.

"Not a problem Princess." He laughed before he was interrupted by Glynda calling out for them to stop socializing.

"Well I will talk to you later kids. Don't do anything I would." He said as he disappeared and began drifting around the room. Eventually he made his way to the stage n the font of the room. Standing silently behind Glynda he simply watched the class from her perspective for a minute.

"Are you going to stand there for the rest of class?" She whispered to the presence behind her.

"Maybe." He said as he came back into the physical plain. "It's interesting watching from the teacher's point of view."

"It's also annoying when the students misbehave." She chided.

"Oh I'm sure it is." He whispered back, fading away. Placing a frozen whisper of a kiss on her cheek as he ghosted back to his seat at the front of the class. Watching for her reaction, eventually when it came he could barely make out the words, even with his faunus hearing.

"You son of a bitch." She whispered angrily, glaring at the spot she thought he was. "Don't do that."

He simply smirked and continued his antics of floating around the room watching students, occasionally passing through some of the more asinine alpha males he had observed throughout his time back at Beacon. When the bell rang he phased back into his mortal coil and gathered his things, expecting to be stopped by Glynda on his way out. He was not disappointed when he was.

"Lucien." She called out after all the other students had left. "What the hell was that?"

"A thank you. For convincing me to come back." He said with a broad smile.

"What's got you so happy. Don't think I didn't notice your childish antics during class. Cardin Winchester may be an asshole but that doesn't mean you need to make him freeze to death."

"Just happy. I realized some things. Even though I've done some horrible things, that doesn't mean I can't be happy. I may not deserve to be happy, but I am so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts." He said, his smile fading slightly at the mention of his past.

"You are insane. I thought I was going crazy, but you really are." She said exasperatedly. "Just get to your next class."

"Yes ma'am." He said as he marched off pseudo-dramatically.

"What a fucking ass… Hehe." He just barely heard as he walked out of the room.

 _You love it and you know it._ He thought as he walked to his next class.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Thanks again for all the favs, follows, and reviews. Enjoy the chapter.**

Chapter 12

Happy Accidents

The next morning Lucien woke up early, a smile plastered on his face. Getting ready for his morning training with Jaune he headed down the hall to knock on JNPR's door. After a minute he heard some shuffling and groaning. The door was answered by a sleepy Ren who had a large drool stain on his chest.

"Hey there kid, you got something on your chest." Lucien greeted.

"Huh… Nora…" Ren groaned, appraising the wet spot on his shirt.

"Nora huh? Sleeping arrangements change while I was away?" He inquired.

"A bit… What can I do for you this early?" Ren asked groggily.

"I'm here to wake up your leader. Time we got back to his training." Lucien said as he walked past Ren into the room. Looking at the beds he spotted the one that Jaune slept in. Walking over to the mass of blankets he saw that Jaune was not alone in the bed.

"Sorry Pyrrha, got to steal your boy." He said as he ripped the blankets off of Jaune, trying to not disturb Pyrrha with his rude awakening. "Time to get up Jauney boy! We have some training to do!"

"Who is being so loud. I'm gonna break their legs." Nora grumbled from across the room in Ren's bed.

"It's just Lucien, Nora go back to sleep." Ren said as he crawled back into bed next to the girl.

"Ok… I'll spare you this time Mr. Ghost." She mumbled.

"Lucien, what the hell man?" Jaune groaned as he rose from bed, trying not to disturb the sleeping girl next to him.

"Training time. Get some pants on and get down to the arena. You go twenty minutes before I start without you." Lucien said before he marched out of the room.

"Ok…" The boy grumbled as he rose and began dressing.

Ten minutes later the two were in the arena sparring at full speed. Exchanging blows as fast as they could, each using their semblance to full effect. Soon Jaune discovered that he could summon more than one shield, but keeping them maintained like that was an exercise in exhaustion. What Jaune hadn't realised was that Lucien was fighting with a massive handicap. Sitting in the back of the room was a figure dressed in blue and cream, appraising the fight with an unwavering eye for technique. The third person brought the unfamiliar feeling of butterflies to Lucien's stomach. Soon enough the feeling got to him and he made a misstep, letting his guard down long enough for Jaune to score a direct hit to his chest.

"Ha first blood!" Jaune shouted.

"And last blood. It's about time we got showered and headed to breakfast." Lucien said, pulling himself up to his full height and looking towards the back of the room. "Go on ahead. I'll see you there."

"Ok man, nice fight today. Next time don't be so distracted by eye candy." Jaune joked, following Lucien's gaze towards Glynda sitting in the back of the room.

"Don't talk about your teachers like that." Lucien chastised jokingly before he jogged to the back of the room. "Hey there professor. What are you doing here so early?"

"I figured you'd be training with Jaune again. So I decided to come and see." She explained.

"Oh really. So what do you think? He's come a long way but I think there is still room to improve. But at least now he won't get killed by a beowulf." Lucien thought aloud.

"Very true, but I think it's a waste that you are only teaching one person at a time." She commented.

"Eh teaching a large class isn't really for me." He said dismissively.

"You never have quite the resume. Over fifty completed missions in the space of three years. That's nothing to scoff at." She countered.

"True, but that was years ago. Now I doubt anyone would hire me. Especially because of my resume." He replied, somewhat serious.

"I guess not." She said, letting the conversation lapse into silence, staring off into space for a moment till she felt a small tugging at her neck.

"I remember this. It took me a whole year's worth of missions to get it made." Lucien said, thumbing the sapphire pendant she was wearing with her outfit.

"It's pretty that's for sure." She said, batting his hand away from her neck.

"It's too bad I never gave your it's companion." He said somewhat regretfully.

"It's companion? What a set of earrings?" She asked.

"No it was a ring of sapphires and diamond." He said distractedly. "That was a big dent in my income. Took me six months just to convince the jeweler to do it after that necklace. He said the necklace was such a pain that he didn't want to do something that had to match it."

"A ring? Really?" She asked, shocked by the possible implications.

"Yeah, it was too beautiful to sell, and it really only went with your necklace, I think it's sitting still in it's box in one of my safe houses." He replied, still staring off in a daydream. "I planned to give it to you on our anniversary. But that never came, so I just let it sit around."

"Really? You were going to give it to me on our… Damn you!" She nearly shouted. "You can't just tell me these things out of nowhere!"

"What? What did I say?" He asked, stupefied by her change in attitude.

"You just told me you were going to propose to me on our anniversary! But instead of doing that you ran off and wait twenty years to just shove yourself back into my life!" She shouted, fracturing the silence of the empty room.

"Yeah I guess I did." He said regretfully. "If you want the ring anyways you can have it. It's the least I can do."

"You fucking idiot. I don't want the stupid ring. I want those twenty years back. I want those twenty years back so I could spend them with you." She cried as tears began falling onto her cheeks.

 _What the fuck am I doing? I keep doing these stupid things because of this insane asshole?_ She thought.

 _Hate to break it to you. But you slept with that asshole, there must be a damn good reason._ Her inner voice shot back.

"Shut up." Glynda whispered.

"I didn't say anything." Lucien replied worriedly

"Nothing, just talking to myself." She replied, wiping away the tears she had shed.

"That's not a good sign. Well I need to get cleaned up before breakfast. I'll see you in class." He said as he rose from his seat next to her. "And Glynda, don't cry about lost time, you get to suffer through my presence for another three years. After that I'm sure you'll never want to see me again."

"Don't pull anything today or I swear I'll pull out every feather you have!" She threatened as he walked off, ignoring his poor joke.

Showering and dressing he headed to breakfast where the rest of team JNPR were waiting for him to join them. Taking his seat he looked around to see questions waiting on their lips.

"Just go ahead and ask away. I'm in a good mood, maybe there won't be a fight this time." Lucien said to break the tension.

"So why did you disappear for two days?" Pyrrha asked.

"I had some business that needed attending too. You've probably already heard about it from the news." He said before backpedaling to correct himself. "Nevermind that last part. It wasn't anything front page worthy."

"Okay… So that's cool, but what happened with Professor Goodwitch back in the classroom?" Jaune asked.

"We talked. That's what adults do. Talk." Lucien answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Well yesterday when you came swooping into class she was more than a little surprised to see you there." Jaune explained.

"Yeah, we may have had a bit of a discussion the other day about my attendance here." He said, thinking back to that night, feeling a blush rise up on his cheeks.

"Yeah a talk. Then explain why you were so distracted this morning during our sparring?" The boy challenged.

"Jaune, shut up." Lucien said, deflecting the question. "Next question, yes you the redhead, not you! The hyper one! Yes you Nora what would you like to ask?"

"Actually I just wanted to say the way you came swooping into class yesterday like an angel of death and kneecapping was TOTALLY AWESOME!" The hyperactive girl said.

"Why thank you, though I've never been a fan of kneecapping myself." The graying man replied. "Next?"

"Actually I have another question." Pyrrha said. "Are you ever gonna tell us what you really did before coming to Beacon? After Weiss's outburst that one time we kinda had her explain to us what she was talking about and it kinda got us thinking."

"Well maybe. But today is not that day children! Today is a good day, and I refuse to spoil it with stories of my past." He replied over enthusiastically.

"Ok that's fair." Pyrrha agreed grudgingly, letting the conversation fall back to the usual topics. The rest of Lucien's day was uneventful compared to his morning, sitting through history, messing with students in combat training, sitting through the torture of Port talking about grimm, and all the other tedious things that he endured on a daily basis, yet today he took them all with a smile. Soon enough he was back in his dorm, laying down for the evening, eager to wake the next morning for more of the same.

Four months passed in this fashion, waking early with Jaune, exchanging moments of honesty with Glynda, telling some of his less gruesome stories to the teams he had made friends with, even letting Ruby cling to his chest as he flew above Beacon's towers once. Then in the first luke warm days of spring he had a change to his usual schedule. A message on his scroll one evening, from Glyna asking him to come to her classroom. Surprised by her urgency he rushed off to the now familiar room, only to find her sitting in the front row of seat, waiting for him with a smile on her face.

"You called madam?" He greeted with a laugh, relieved that she seemed to be in good spirits.

"Hello there." She greeted warmly. "Take a seat, I wanted to talk to you about something that's been turning around in my head for a while now."

"Ok, shoot. I'm waiting with bated breath." He joked as he took a seat next to her.

"I was thinking about the conversation we had some time ago. About how I think you would make a good teacher. I want you to teach class tomorrow." She explained.

"Uh… I don't really think I'm the teaching type. Mentor maybe… but teaching… I don't really think I'm a good fit for that role." He said, trying to subvert the conversation off of his teaching abilities.

"Well that's too bad, I already have it cleared with Ozpin, so you will be teaching my class tomorrow." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Damn, so there isn't any weaseling out of this one is there?" He asked morosely.

"Not a chance. You are teaching and that's really all there is to it." She said.

"Will I at least get extra credit for it?" He joked back, still somewhat apprehensive about it.

"Oh I'm sure that can be arranged." She laughed as she rose to leave. "Just don't mess it up too badly."

"I'll try not to." He said rising from his seat.

"Oh and thanks. I needed a day off." She laughed as she walked off.

"Wait what?!" He called after her, running to catch up "Day off? As in the whole day?"

"Yeap, the whole day." She said as she continued to walk away.

"Damn you little witch." He grumbled as he shuffled off back to his dorm, dreading the day of teaching that he would endure the next day.

 _Well, I guess I need a lesson plan. Fuck it, let's wing it and see how that goes. Hehe, Yang must be rubbing off on me. Puns… Hehe_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The Teacher's Pet

Fresh from a shower and breakfast, Lucien stood in front of a class of second year students. The sense of dread he felt at that moment made the tession he had felt before his first mission seem like a case of mild indigestion. His mind raced, trying to decide on a proper course of action. He was dreading the moment that bell would ring, signaling him to start talking. All too soon that time came and the class quieted and looked up to the stage, expecting to see the familiar face of Professor Goodwitch. What they got was a man who looked as if he was about to vomit onto the first row of students.

"Give me a minute and we'll get started, okay?" Lucien finally said, glancing around the room for confirmation. After a solid minute of silence he finally found the breath to speak again.

"Ok here's how this is gonna go. I'm gonna introduce myself, then you all get five minutes to ask as many questions as I can answer. Then we start training my way." He explained, once again looking for confirmation in the faces of the students. "Also, when I ask a question like that just shout or nod your heads or something."

"Oooookaaaay… So for those of you that don't know, I am Lucien La Fiere, you all can call me Mr. La Fiere." He started, before opening up the floor for questions. "Go ahead and start asking away, you got five minutes." 

Soon hands shot up into the air around the classroom. Picking one at random he began answering questions. Soon enough there was only a minute left and the questions had started to get a little trickier.

"Yes you, in the third row." Lucien shouted out pointing to a girl with rabbit ears.

"Mr. La Fiere, I was wondering what makes you qualified to teach us for the day?" The faunus girl asked.

"Over fifty successful missions in my first three years of hunting. As well as a long career working in government as a consultant." He replied shortly, looking for another student to call on. Finding one he pointed to the student and called on them.

"Yeah, is the rumor that you were a contract killer true?" A boy that could only be described as rich and asinine called out.

"Yes." He said sarcastically. "Now moving on… Oh wait you all think I was serious? Damn you people are dense. Time is up. First lesson, never believe what you hear. Always question information."

He looked around the room, seeing a mixture of disappointment and relief painted on the faces of the students. He decided to let the silence hang in the air for a moment, letting his first lesson sink in. After a moment he began pairing up matches, ignoring the randomizer and simply selecting students who looked more than competent. After the first match he sent the students to clean up, by that time he had devised an actual plan and decided to put it into place.

"Ok, now I'll give you all thirty seconds to think about the match we just watched between Miss Adel and Mr. Ancor." He stated. "When that time is up I will call on you randomly, when I do, you must tell me one fact, observation, flaw in tactics, anything worth mentioning about the match. Time starts now."

After the time was up he began calling on students, asking names as he went. He noted down the ones that floundered under the questioning, as well as the ones who answered exceptionally well. Soon enough he deemed it time to start another match, warning the students that the next round of questioning would be about both matches they had seen so far.

After three more rounds of questioning the class had come to an end and he had to prepare for the first years. Deciding his best course of action would be to simply repeat the same lesson, but skipping the question and answer at the beginning. He found himself disappointed when team RWBY's leader threw a wrench in his plans.

"Hey Lucien! What are you doing up there?" Shouted out the peppy girl.

"Hello there Miss Rose. Today I will be teaching class." Lucien informed her.

"Ha! You'll be teaching class?! What kind of a joke is that?" A boy he recognized as one of the freshman bullies shouted out.

"The kind that is only funny for me." Lucien said with a wicked smile. "You are up first on the chopping block."

"What the hell does that mean old man?" The boy shot back.

"You are the first one to spar. We are practicing hand to hand combat today." Lucien explained, his smile growing wider as he made up the torture on the spot.

"What? No weapons?" The bully questioned, still disbelieving.

"Yes no weapons! Now go get your armor on, and don't even think about bringing your weapons or you will be sparring with me." Lucien threatened, winning the approval of most of the students present.

"Yes sir." The boy grumbled as he shuffled off towards the locker rooms.

"Now who wants to challenge that guy?" Lucien said cheerily. "I would enjoy it very much if you are able to best him."

"I can take him Sir." Shouted out at least a dozen students, but Lucien picked the one he knew could handle himself well without a weapon. He knew this from their dozens of sparring sessions that had focused on just that topic.

"I'm just gonna play favorites here." Lucien warned the class as he hopped down from the stage to sit in the front row of student seats. After he had gotten comfortable in his seat he called over his shoulder. "Jaune, go get ready. You're facing him."

"Yes Sir." Jaune said confidently, as he rose from his seat. When he passed him he paused for a second, whispering a question to his mentor. "Is it time to show off my semblance?"

"If you need to." The older man responded with a wink. "Make me proud boy."

"You can bet on it." Jaune replied as he strode off confidently to the locker rooms.

When both the boys had returned and taken their places on the stage Lucien rose again and hopped back up to address them.

"Ok boys. No weapons… Check." He began nonchalantly. "The only rules are no killing each other and don't break bones. Semblances are allowed. So are cheap shots. Pretty much anything but lethal force."

After he had gotten a response from each of the boys he jumped back off the stage and turned on the force field at the podium and took his seat to watch. A wicked smile came upon his face as he watched the monitors light up, displaying the names of the students and their aura levels. Jaune's aura meter had a much larger capacity than the other boys. Checking the other monitor he recognized the name "Cardin" as that of the boy that team JNPR seemed to despise. His smile grew even wider when he saw how little the boy had in the way of aura reserves.

"Watch closely class. This fight will be a good demonstration of how hard work pays off much more than a father with a large wallet." Lucien called out over his shoulder.

A smattering of small laughs could be heard coming from the collection of students. Then all was quiet when the match began. Cardin took the first steps forward, trying to bull rush Jaune and get into a grapple. Jaune had seen this tactic fail before and knew to simply side step as Lucien had done the many times they had sparred. Taking the chance to land a strike, Jaune shot his palm forward into Carin's exposed side. The force of the blow threw Cardin off balance and made him stumble, clutching the now sore spot on his side.

This simple exchange infuriated Cardin. Angered by the sudden humiliation of losing the right of first strike he threw himself at Jaune again. When he came charging in with a jab at Jaune's head his plow was caught by a solid hand that gripped his wrist tightly. Jaune took control of his opponent's arm and pulled it down at a painful angle, forcing a cry of pain from Cardin. Sweeping his foot behind Cardin's knees Jaune forced him to the ground. Jaune then placed his forearm behind Cardin's shoulder, using it to apply leverage, causing Cardin to shout out in extreme pain.

"Concede or I dislocate your shoulder. That is not pleasant. I assure you." Jaune threatened, using his best impression of Lucien's mannerisms.

"NO!" Cardin shouted back.

"Fine." Jaune said as he began to apply more pressure to the joint.

"OK! I CONCEDE!" Cardin shouted out in pain.

"That's enough boys!" Lucien shouted as he brought down the force field and jumped back onto the stage. "I said no broken bones Jaune. See me after class. Now both of you go get changed."

He got nods of agreement from both of the boys before they headed off to the locker rooms. He then turned to address the class which was sitting in stupefied silence. Looking at their faces it seemed that there was an even mixture of disappointment and shock.

"Ok class. When they get back we will, as a group, assess their match. You have till they get back to think about it and come up with answers to whatever I might ask." Lucien informed them, before he took a seat on the edge of the stage.

"It was such a simple fight there isn't really much to talk about. It was an easy match to call. Jaune has much more training in hand to hand combat, as well as better trained reflexes. But what it ultimately came down to was Cardin losing his temper practically immediately." A voice called out from the back of the class, drawing all eyes to her.

"Why thank you for spoiling all of my student's fun, Professor Goodwitch." Lucien answered with good humor.

"My pleasure, Mr. La Fiere." Glynda greeted in return.

"Well it looks like we won't be assessing their fight after all class." Lucien said to the students. "Is there anything you would like to add Professor?"

"Besides the fact that Jaune was pretty sloppy with that counter? No not really." She said, poking fun at Lucien's teaching.

"I take offense at that!" Lucien responded good naturedly. "He countered that just as I taught him to."

"I suppose that's why it was so sloppy." She joked. "But please continue teaching. Don't let my presence distract you."

"We won't. Will we class?" He called out, getting a round on 'No Sir' from the students that were still paying attention.

After the boys had returned to their seats he jumped right back into the matches, taking the time after each one to evaluate it, making sure to call on those students that seemed to be easily distracted. The rest of the class went without a hitch, but every so often his eyes would wander back to look at Glynda. Every time he looked back he saw her eyes intent on him, an approving look set on her face.

"Ok class, that's the last match of the hour, I want you to write half a page about it. And since Professor Goodwitch was here to see the match, I'm sure she would be more than happy to grade them when you give them to her tomorrow." Lucien said, a devilish smile plastered on his face. When he looked back to see her response his heart skipped a beat at the sight of the death glare that was aimed right at him.

After the bell rang Glynda came striding up to him, looking like a hunter stalking it's prey. For a moment Lucien contemplated running from her for his own safety. Before he could act she was standing in front of him, an accusing finger pointed at his chest.

"I never said you could assign homework!" She snarled. "Homework that I will have to grade!"

"You also never said I couldn't." He chuckled, trying to break the tension. "Calm down. I'll come in and grade them myself tomorrow."

"You had better." She warned, lowering her hand. "Besides that I have to hand it to you. You handled the kids well, they seemed to actually be pretty engaged."

"Thanks… If I'm being honest I was just winging it. Hehe…"

"Really… You were just pulling that out of your ass?"

"Yeah… It went pretty well first hour so I figured I would just keep it up all day…"

"What the hell…" She sighed. "Well I guess that works."

"Yeah it seems like it does." He chuckled. "Well students are about to start showing up. I need to get ready."

"To just wing it?" She asked incredulously before she realized the reason for his laughter. "Oh god that is so bad… Why would you make that joke?"

"Miss Xiao Long must be rubbing off on me." He answered as he jumped up from his seat on the edge of the stage.

As the students began to pour in he took his spot behind the podium. After the bell rang he made his introduction and went right into arranging sparring matches. After the hour had passed he took his seat again, waiting for the last round of students before lunch hour rolled around.

"You never warned me it was this painful waiting for lunch!" He called to the back of the classroom where Glynda was sitting.

"I never found it difficult." She called back. "Maybe you listen to your stomach too much if you are already hungry."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"You were out of breath this morning after your lesson with Jaune." She mocked. "Maybe you're getting a little old."

"Me? Old? Never."

"Sure… Well you only have one more hour. I hope your stomach can hold out till then." She joked back.

Soon the interim between class periods was over and Lucien had to begin teaching again. Going through the routine he had set up, introduction, sparring, assessment, etc. By the time the hour had ended Lucien was sure the first row of students could hear his stomach growling. The moment the bell rang Lucien practically bolted to the door before he was stopped by Glynda.

"You are eating with me today." She stated. "If you are gonna be a teacher for the day you are gonna eat like one. Away from students."

"I don't care, so long as I get to eat."

"Stop acting so childish." SHe muttered. "Come along then, we'll go eat."

"Finally." He sighed.

As Glynda led the way to the dining hall the two chatted like old friends, talking about trivial things like the weather and recent politics. When they arrived at the dining hall they took their places in line, letting the conversation lapse. Finally they had their food and were sitting at one of the secluded round tables that the faculty sat at during meals.

"So how are you liking your first day teaching?" Glynda asked hesitantly.

"I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit now that I've gotten the hang of it." Lucien replied. "Though I doubt my technique would work for an entire semester."

"I doubt it would."

"But I'm sure if I was forced to do this every day I could come up with some creative torture methods for second years."

"Don't get me started on second years." She sighed. "They are the most annoying bunch of students… Every year they get worse too."

"You are really doing a good job of selling the whole teaching thing to me." He replied with a chuckle.

"There are high points." She defended.

"Sure like what?"

"The reward of watching students succeed, the sadistic pleasure derived from punishing second years with testing and homework, uh…. Yeah that's about it."

"Well as fun as that sounds I think I'll find something else to do with my time after I leave." He joked.

"You're leaving?" She whispered, suddenly losing her confidence and good humor.

"Well yeah… Schooling only lasts for four years." He said quietly. "And that's if I stay that long."

"When did you plan on leaving?"

"When I first got here I was going to give it a month or two. Now I think I'll just play it by ear." He explained.

"What are you going to do after that?" She questioned as she found her confidence again.

"I was thinking I might find some protection contracts or maybe do some independant hunting." He said with a small smile. "Something that might do some good."

"Well that's sounds like a good plan."

"Who knows I might even take the time to stop by and check up on Juane every now and again." He chuckled. "Who knows what he would do without me there to whip his ass into shape when he get's lazy."

"I'm sure he would like that." Glynda said just before the bell rang, dismissing students to their next class.

"It was nice sharing a meal with you Glynda." Lucien said with an honest smile as he rose to leave the cafeteria.

"Yeah, you too."

"Maybe we should do it again?" Lucien suggested. "How about next saturday?"

"Yeah that sounds good." She replied without thinking. "Wait what?"

"Dinner? Next saturday?" He asked again.

"Um… I guess I already said yes."

"I'd let you change your mind. But I must warn you, it would wound my pride terribly."

"No that's fine. I guess it's a date then."

"Good. Now let's get back to the classroom. It wouldn't be proper to have the teacher be the last to arrive."

 _I think I'm going to need a suit._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Date Night

That week Lucien discovered that getting a suite tailored to have slots for wings was more challenging than he thought it would be. The tailor he had gone to in the past catered to faunus very well, but sadly he had never done a suite like the one Lucien requested. The suite almost didn't arrive in time, but luckily it was finished the morning of the date and Lucien had even gotten a chance to try it on and get the fit adjusted to be perfect. Now he stood in the middle of Beacon's main courtyard, the sound of the fountains his only companion as he waited for Glynda to arrive.

When Glynda finally arrived Lucien had to remind himself to breath. In his eyes she looked like an angel wrapped in blue. His eyes roamed over her, taking in every curve and crease. She wore a slim blue dress the colour of rough cut sapphires, with a slit running up the left side side to expose the soft white skin of her thigh. The only jewelry she wore was the pendant Lucien had given her years ago. As she walked towards Lucien the only noise he could register was the click of her heels and his own breathing.

"Why don't you look spiffy." She greeted him with a warm smile.

"You look… I don't think stunning is a strong enough word." He stuttered.

"Thank you." She replied cooly, glad to not be the speechless one. "Where are we going for dinner?"

"The Epicure. I've been missing the food of Atlas a bit lately and thought it would be fitting." He informed. "That is I thought it was fitting considering the date today."

"The date…" Glynda wondered aloud. "Oh my… Lucien that's very sweet of you."

"Yeah I just noticed that it was coming up and figured… " He explained before he trailed off into a bashful silence.

"Well then let's get going." She said as she placed her hand in his arm and pulled him towards the airfield.

When they got to the airfield they found a pilot and payed to be dropped off in downtown Vale. Making the short walk to the center of the busy city they quickly fell into their new routine of chatting pleasantly about nothing of consequence. However, throughout the conversation there was always unspoken subtext. Glynda was dying to know what else Lucien had planned for the date, while Lucien was determined to keep it all a surprise. Soon enough they were standing in the entry to The Epicure, one of Vale's finest dining establishments.

"Good evening." A hostess greeted warmly. "What is the name on the reservation?"

"La Fiere and company." Lucien answered cooly.

"We have your table waiting. Right this way." The hostess said as she led them towards a secluded corner of the warmly lit restaurant.

"How did you get a reservation here on such short notice?" Glynda whispered to Lucien as they walked to their table.

"I called in a favor with the owner. He was a former student of mine. Didn't like the hunter lifestyle and decided to settle down and open this place up." Lucien explained.

"I thought all your students had… you know…" She asked, somewhat ashamed by her assumptions.

"No not all of them." He said somberly. "Actually most of them are still alive. I've only lost two kids."

"Oh. I'm sorry." She apologised. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No that's ok." He assured her. "Tonight I have an honesty policy. If there is any question you want to ask you can and I will try not to blow up."

"Thank you. That's very open of you."

"I haven't even answered any questions yet. Don't start thanking me now." Lucien said as he pulled her seat out for her before taking his own.

"Your server will be with you momentarily." The hostess said before she departed.

A silence fell over the table as the couple glanced over the menu. When their server arrived to take their drink orders Lucien placed an order for an exorbitantly overpriced appetizer and a bottle of white wine. After the server left the table settled back into an uncomfortable silence. Glynda followed the precedent she had set over the past months and broke it first.

"You said you lost two kids." She began hesitantly. "Were you close with them?"

"Yeah I practically raised them." He murmured. "Gabell and Sienna Brunswick."

"Siblings?"

"Yeah, Brunswick was their birthname. If you look them up in a Vacuo database they come up as Gabell and Sienna La Fiere."

"They had your last name?"

"I adopted them when Gabell was seven and Sienna was five. That was when I was still trying to do good in the world. Morningstar didn't even exist then."

"How long was that after you left?"

"Only about three years. I had taken a job to eliminate a drug ring in Vacuo. The leader of this drug empire had a few small farming villages under his thumb, using them for cheap labor. I went in and cleared one out of his goons. There were a lot of orphans there, most of them found homes with family members. But those two didn't have any family to go to. So I adopted them."

"And the government in Vacuo didn't have a problem with this?"

"Back then I was making headlines but the governments didn't really have a problem with me so long as I was only causing trouble for criminal enterprises."

"I figured as much. Politicians will gladly let someone else clean up the mess for them."

"Yeah and they saw that I was good at cleaning it up, so they just let me go on about my business. So no one really cared if I opened up a bank account or tried to rent an apartment, and apparently adopt some homeless kids."

"That must have been a trying experience. Raising two kids on your own while still taking jobs."

"It wasn't too bad. I took jobs near home and spent plenty of time with them when they were young. When Gabell was old enough to look after his sister I started taking jobs a bit farther away from home. I had eleven happy years with them." Lucien said, barely holding back tears.

"What happened?" Glynda whispered. "Nevermind, you don't have to tell me that."

"No it's ok, I got my closure a long time ago." Lucien reassured as he steadied himself. "I had made some enemies in my time. I had been training Gabell for a few years. He wanted to be a hero. He always said he wanted to be like me. I wanted none of that. But one day those enemies came and took them from me."

"That's horrible… I hope you killed every last one of them." Glynda said bitterly.

"No, I did something much worse. I found the man who ordered the hit and I took every last person he loved and wiped them off the face of Remnant." Lucien stated vengefully.

"Good." She said angrily, a small tear falling down her cheek.

"That was when I really took a turn for the worse." He said regretfully. "When I came to Beacon it was the sixth anniversary of their death."

"I'm so sorry. No parent should ever have to lose their children."

"No, a parent should never have to go through that." He stated fervently. "But I got my chance to be happy with a family and I would adopt those kids again in a heartbeat."

"Who says you only get one chance?"

"While I don't have many enemies now, those I do still have are dangerous and they have already proven that they are willing to take people from me."

A moment of silence passed before their waitress came to take their orders and refresh their drinks. After she had left they sat in silence till their food came. When their food arrived they tucked in, falling back to polite conversation about trivial things. Soon enough Lucien grew tired of the meaningless conversation and brought up a topic that had been on both of their minds.

"So do you remember what today is?" He asked.

"Yes. I think it was very sweet of you to do this on our anniversary." She said sweetly.

"I thought it was appropriate." Lucien responded gently. "I wanted to give you something."

"You didn't need to get me a gift."

"Well it's nothing special, just something I've had laying about for a few years." He alluded as he reached into the pocket of his suit jacket, pulling out a small blue velvet box. Opening the box he placed it on the table and turned it to her so that she could see the contents. Inside the box was a golden ring with a setting of sapphires and diamonds surrounded by deep purple amethyst.

"Lucien, you are not allowed to propose to me on the first date." She barely managed to choke out.

"I'm not. I'm giving you something that belongs to you. I should have given it to you many years ago." He stated calmly.

"This is beautiful Lucien. But I can't accept this." She said attempting to deny the gift. "Save it for when it actually has meaning."

"Well, that's the thing." He began to explain. "I'm leaving after the end of the year. I don't know where I'm going but I think it's time I leave Beacon and find some honest work."

"You are leaving. At the end of the school year?" She choked out. "That's in a month."

"Yeah. I'm not leaving for good. At least I don't plan too. I just think it's time I move on to a new line of work. I might try and find a place that will let me teach."

"But that's so soon. Are you sure you couldn't stay for the summer?"

"Glynda… I'm not leaving your life. I'm not disappearing again. I'm going job hunting."

"Last time you left for a job you didn't come home for twenty years." She spat back, suddenly enraged by the mixed signal he was sending.

"Glynda, please calm down. I'm not leaving you again." He whispered as he reached across the table to grasp her hand gently.

"Ok, I'm sorry I snapped… It's just…" _Say it._ "I just… I…" _Say it damn it. "_ I love you." She finally whispered.

"I love you too." Lucien said resolutely.

"You ass. I get all worked up and you can just say it."

"You had twenty years to hate me. I had twenty years to miss you."

"I didn't hate you for twenty years. I missed you for at least ten of them." She joked back in a whisper.

"I'm sure you did. And I'm sorry I put you through that."

"At least you came back."

"I'm always going to come back. Now let's finish this meal, I would hate to spoil my former pupil's food."

"I'm sure you would. Hehehe"

As the couple went back to eating Glynda kept eyeing the ring sitting in front of her. She contemplated the meaning it once held. How many times had he thought of giving it to her, she wondered. Eventually the main course came to an end and their waitress brought out the dessert menus. They ordered dessert and sat in content silence, when their dessert arrived they returned to chatting, staying far away from either's past escapades.

When the dinner came to an end Lucien payed for the meal and left a generous tip before he scooped up the ring and pulled out Glynda's chair for her, helping her up from her seat. As they stepped out of the restaurant into the cool evening air Lucien led them to a town car that was waiting for them around the corner. Opening the rear door for her before he went around and got into the back seat with her. He tapped on the glass that divided the passengers from the driver. When the glass rolled down Glynda could just barely make out the shape of a chauffeur's cap with dog ears sticking out of it. Lucien handed the faunus man a slip of paper and then rolled the divider up again.

"Where are we going?" Glynda inquired.

"Somewhere. I had it prepared especially for tonight." Lucien answered cryptically.

"You aren't going to tell me are you?"

"Not a chance." He replied with a smile.

The rode in silence for a few minutes till the view outside the window dimmed as they left the bright lights of downtown Vale. After another minute of driving the streets became so dark outside the tinted windows that Glynda couldn't make out what part of town they were in. After another few minutes the car rolled to a slow stop an Lucien knocked on the divider again and handed the driver a sizable amount of lien for his services.

Exiting the car Lucien made his way to the passenger side and opened the door for Glynda, assisting her as she got out of the comfortable vehicle. When she stepped out into the night she saw that they were in front of a familiar location.

"You brought me to _the fucking Spigot_?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah, but just wait till we get inside." He said excitedly. "See this place used to be one of the best piano bars in Vale, live music and dancing all night, the best drinks, welcomed everyone, it was great. Then the gangs rolled into this part of town and no one wanted to come here anymore. But tonight, we are going to relive the past."

As he lead an annoyed Glynda into the greasy bar he was almost skipping with excitement to see the renovations he had payed for. When they entered he was not disappointed, hearing Glynda gasp at the transformation that had taken place. _The Spigot_ wasn't _The Spigot_ anymore, it was _Red's Place_ again. The lights were dim, not dingy, the air was fresh, so was the cream paint on all but one wall, the wall behind the bar being a deep red with the words _Red's Place_ painted in cream above the racks of expensive liquors. Even the owner looked like he had been remodeled. Jonah sat behind a grand piano in the corner of the room playing a deeply moving waltz. The greasy old bartender that Glynda had met so many months ago was clean shaven with a fresh hair cut, and he was wearing a dark blue jeans, a blue button down shirt and a sports coat that made him look like a professional jazz player.

"Welcome to _Red's Place_ " Jonah called out over his shoulder. "I'm Red, owner and musician here. Behind the bar is my daughter Carmine, former pupil of the renowned hunter Lucien La Fiere. And you must be our guest of honour."

"Jonah, this place looks amazing." Lucien said as he walked over and patted Jonah on the shoulder. "And Carmine, it's been forever. Hope you haven't been following in my footsteps."

"Not a chance geezer." Called the slim young woman with fiery hair. "It's nice to meet you ma'am. I'm Carmine."

"Nice to meet you too. Call me Glynda." Glynda said as she walked over to the bar and shook the girl's hand.

"Take a seat you two. The rest of the guests should be arriving soon." Jonah, or Red as he was tonight, said as he continued to play the piano.

"The rest of the guests?" Glynda asked as she eyed Lucien suspiciously.

"I invited some old friends." Lucien explained.

"Oh… That'll be nice to meet some of your old friends."

"I thought it would be nice to have some company."

The two sat and chatted for a bit before the first of the guests arrived. The first to show up were the members of Lucien's old team. The members of team ALBR had aged well all things considered. The team's leader, Alice, a small woman with dark hair and tan skin greeted Glynda with a hug and Lucien with a glare.

"Twenty years. You go off and become a hired blade and don't talk to anyone for twenty years then call us all up." The petite woman scorned. "I ought to beat some sense into you bird boy."

"It's good to see you too Alice." He greeted warmly, brushing off her threat.

"Alice dear, you know how well trying to punch Lucien goes." Reminded the large man that stood behind her.

"Hey there Robin. It's good to see that the two of you finally tied the knot." Lucien greeted the large man.

"Yes it's good to see you too." The patient man replied warmly.

"Hey now what about me?" Called out the former team's trickster, Brandies.

"Well Brandy, I figured I'd do my best to ignore you and hope you don't spike my drink with something childish like an aphrodisiac." Lucien jested, pointing out one of the man's favorite pranks during their school days.

"Hey that was always funny watching you squawk at every woman in site." The joker shot back.

"I forgot how much I didn't' miss the bird jokes." Lucien sighed. The group of old friends sat down and caught up as the rest of the guests filled in. Most of the guests were the regulars at the bar, but tonight everyone had pulled out the stops and dressing in their finest, some of them even shaved and brought their wives.

"Ok now that we are all here!" Called Jonah over the low din of conversation. "I would like to raise a toast. To the man who spent WAY too much money on fixing this place up. To the man we all know and hate, Lucien. To you my bird brained buddy."

As everyone raised their glass and laughed at the joke Lucien downed his drink and walked over to bar to get another one. After downing his second drink he made his way back to where he had left Glynda with his former team. As soon as Jonah began playing again Lucien turned to his date.

"Would you dance with me?" He asked cordially with a bow.

"Of course." She replied, letting him lead her to the center of the room where a small dance floor had been prepared. As Jonah started up the waltz that had been playing when they entered Lucien led Glynda in the first steps of the dance. The pair glided about the dance floor alone for a minute before they were joined by the other couples that were gathered in the small bar. As the song wound down the couples broke for a moment and chatted while Jonah prepared for the next piece.

The next song was a surprise to even Lucien. Jonah picked up a guitar that had been resting next to the piano and turned to face the room. As he started up on the first chords of a somber song that talked about love and loss and finding you place in life, Lucien pulled Glynda in tight and sang the song quietly in her ear.

 _Candle aren't lit yet, and we just became friends, friends again._

 _I drove off my dreams, make 'em real again._

 _I hung my flag high, I won't ever forget eating my pride._

 _I taste gold on my tongue, see white from my eyes._

 _And when I'm askin' for your hand, but you're coming home instead._

 _I'll ask for so much more, never to leave me again._

 _If I leave this town for them, I'll see mountains again._

 _But if I can't see you, I've lost it all my friend._

As the song wound down Lucien felt a damp spot on his shoulder. Slowly the pair spun through to the end of the song. As the final chords rang out in the silent room Glynda raised her head up to meet Lucien's eyes. The look of love she saw painted across his face brought such joy her that she couldn't help but lean in and place the gentlest of kisses upon his lips.

"Thank you for tonight. It was wonderful." She breathed.

"Thank you for giving me a second chance." He whispered back.

After another dance the small party wound down and slowly disbanded. Lucien and Glynda were the last ones to leave, saying their thanks to Jonah and his daughter for putting on such a wonderful party for them. As the walked out into the now cold night air Glynda realised that there wasn't a car waiting for them.

"How are we going to get back to the school?" She asked worriedly.

"I have a plan for that don't worry." He said as he rolled his shoulders and let his wings unfurl. "I may have gotten some work done on this suit to fit me a little bit better."

"I was afraid you would say that." She laughed.

"It won't take long. Just hold on tight." He reassured her.

"I won't let go." She agreed. "But one thing before we take off."

"What is it?" He asked worriedly.

"Yes." Was all she said as she leaned in to kiss him again, snaking her hand into his jacket pocket and retrieving the box that had taunted her since dinner. As she broke the kiss she opened the box and pulled out the ring. Taking his hand she guided his fingers to slip it onto the third figure on her left had.

"I never asked you." He stammered out.

"That's why you got it though." She stated. "And my answer is yes."

"Hold on angel." He said as he scooped her up into a tight embrace and launched them into the night sky. Though he was just skimming the top of the Vale skyline he felt as if he was flying above the clouds.

 _I am so very lucky to have my own personal angel._ They thought together as they soared through the night sky towards the towering spires of Beacon.

 **AN: For those wondering the song that Jonah plays is "Fake Arms" by Foreign Fields. Beautiful song, I highly recommend you listen to it.**


	15. Epilogue

**AN: Thank you all for the encouragement and love. All in all I'd say that I am very happy with my first story and I can't wait till I start writing my next. Sadly that will be a bit of a ways out as I need to take a break for health reasons. I hope see you all there on the next one. Enjoy.**

Chapter 15

Epilogue

"Class dismissed." Lucien called out to the gathering of first years. "And remember, I want that paper on my desk tomorrow."

He knew the signs by now, a smattering of nods, a few groans, the majority of students simply ignoring him. He was going to be giving a lot of late grades tomorrow. Packing up the mess of papers that sat on his desk he readied himself for the short flight home from the edge of Patch to Vale. In the past year he had gotten very good at making the trip a short one, always anxious to get home to his apartment in Vale.

A knock on the door frame interrupted his packing, looking up he saw the man he was forever indebted to. The tall blonde man stood in the doorway, an apprehensive look on his face.

"Hello there Taiyang. What can I do for you?" Lucien greeted the fellow teacher.

"Hey there Lucy. So I'm supposed to be taking some second years out for some field training, but my kids are coming home for the week so I wanted to be at the airfield to greet them." Taiyang explained.

"Man, I got a wife waiting for me at home." Lucien complained, knowing what his fellow teacher was about to request. "But I'll do it. I owe you."

"Lucy how many times do I have to tell you. It was nothing, putting in a good word for you was one of the best things I've done here."

"Yeah, sticking your neck out for me wasn't risky at all."

"Nah man, the headmaster here trusts me. No reason you wouldn't get the job if I vouched for you."

"Ya ya. I'll take the kids out to the field. You go pick up your daughters tell them I say hi."

"Tell you what. Why don't you stop by with Glynda for dinner sometime this week?" Taiyang offered.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. We'll do that. Now get going. You're gonna be late." Lucien said, waving the now exuberant man off.

Taking his bag and hanging it up on the hook inside the doorway he headed out to the field where the students gathered in preparation for field training. He greeted the second years and asked what they were supposed to be doing. After he got all the pertinent details he led the student into the woods that surrounded the school. As he supervised the training exercise he continually checked his watch. Growing more and more aggravated as the minutes ticked by. Eventually the exercise was over and he led the students back to the school. After he checked that all the students were there he stripped off his shirt and took to the air, relieved to be heading home.

Landing on the roof of the apartment building he phased straight through the roof and directly into the living room of his top floor apartment. Landing silently he scanned the room, seeing that his lovely wife wasn't there he stalked silently towards the kitchen where a faint humming could be heard. Walking up behind Glynda he quietly snaked his arms around her waist, feeling her tense momentarily before he got a swat on the arm.

"I told you not to surprise me like that." Glynda chastised as she spun around in his arms, placing a soft kiss on his still bare chest. "You're freezing. Did you fly at top speed again?"

"Hmm… Yeah but I think I can shave another thirty seconds off of it is I phase after I get to altitude." He muttered as he picked up the tune she had been humming.

"Are you going to let me go or would you prefer the food got burnt?" She questioned as he gently started to spin her around to the tune he was humming.

"By the way, happy anniversary." He whispered into her hair.

"Happy anniver-" She began to ask before she remembered the date. "How did I forget?! It's our anniversary!"

"Yes it is." He murmured as he continued to spin her around. "Now as much as I would love to take you out to a fancy dinner, whatever you are cooking smells delicious, so I think we should stay in."

"I couldn't agree more." She said quietly as she struggled to pull herself from his grasp.

"I'll let you go if you give me what I want."

"And what do you want?"

"This." He answered as he leaned in and gave her a passionate kiss. "I love you Angel."

"I love you too." She whispered back. "Lucy."

"Don't call me that."

"Whatever you say."

"Yes, whatever I say." He whispered into a deep kiss, a slight whiff of burning food drifting up to their noses.

"Well I guess we are going out to dinner anyways." Glynda said with small laugh.

"Or we could just stay in…"

"I like that idea."

"We'll have quite the mess to cleanup tomorrow."

"I don't think I care right now. Happy anniversary my love."

"Happy anniversary my angel."

 _~Fin~_


End file.
